Study motivation – one perspective

Should studying be fun&games or pain&suffering? And how are things in life? What is there to pursue?

I will tell you a true story from this country…

dedicated to the memory of one smart and  tactful lady I knew, who was born fatherless to a one-room cottage year 1918 in a tavastian village some 200 km north from Helsinki.

She grew up with extreme poverty with many siblings (read ´´facing hunger´´), with the shame of being born out-side marriage, and with ambulatory school (by a travelling teacher) receiving only basic reading, writing and calculation skills. No more available for her those days!

After fighting through the tough life, widowing two times and losing a brother during  the wars in the forties and earning a living with own bare hands as the mother of four, she closed her eyes tired for the last time this week 19.3.2013, but did so as the proud owner of a good-sized tavastian forest estate growing pine and spruce trees as tough and persistent as herself.

Thinking about her challenges and accomplishments in life, gives at least to me a good perspective to our ’’challenges’’. Her life’s story will always fill my heart with the overwhelming gratitude towards her generation for the whole free-of-charge education system in this country among the other nowadays luxuries we take for granted.

Good motivation rarely comes given from outside. Everyone has to discover it from within, through own challenging experiences. From outside we can only create experiences. But are such experiences powerful-enough. For some, maybe.

In a philosophic mood today,

group-blogger Mirja Andersson /Senior Lecturer