Asking for Help
Cara Chill
I
have recently taken notice in my life that asking for help seems to have a
negative connotation. Ever since I can
remember, if I did not understand something, I would ask for assistance. However, in adulthood, I am noticing a lot of
individuals who see this as a sign of weakness or incompetence. When did we start to say that it is not
acceptable to ask for help? Many of us would admit to going above and beyond
when it comes to helping our friends and family but when it is us who needs
help, we have a tendency to refuse it.
Understandably, it is not the most comfortable experience to admit that
you may be struggling. However, if you
do not seek help, how are you supposed to receive it? I have been ruminating
over this topic for a while now and simply cannot grasp it. I have finally come to the conclusion that
you have to accept that you cannot do everything yourself 100% of the time and
there is nothing wrong with that! Even the best and the brightest have had
trouble at one point or another. There
are many people throughout history who have struggled and ended up succeeding
in the end. Bill Gates dropped out of
Harvard, Thomas Edison had 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before creating the
first light bulb, and Oprah Winfrey was fired when she was once a television
reporter. What I am trying to
demonstrate is, everyone has flops in life but it is up to you to turn that
flop into something useful. I try to
make every negative experience into something I can learn from. Learning is a process that we go through our
entire lives and along the way, we may ask for help. Asking for help should not be a negative
reflection of someone’s intelligence or ability. It should demonstrate their strength and
courage for seeking the opportunity to learn and better themselves. Teaching,
learning, and helping others, is a part of life, and appreciating those times
in life where we can learn something new or teach something to someone makes
life a bit more exciting. I will leave
you all with a quote that may be a tad bit cliché but fitting for my thoughts. “Give
a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for
the rest of his life.” Chinese Proverb
It is so hard to ask for help when we have to break down the barriers that society or our family build around asking for help!
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