A High School Literature Lesson

Learning to leave Godot.

Now, with four years of college wisdom almost behind me (and I know, that’s not much but it’s still a little something), I can safely deem 95% of high school as utterly useless. College has either disproved or complicated anything I ever learned in high school.

Except for a few gems.

Like the play, Waiting for Godot. I still have my well-thumbed copy on my bookshelf.

Have you ever read Waiting for Godot? It’s a play I had to read in high school, an incredibly hard read because nothing happens in it. Literally. The whole play really is about two men waiting for a man named Godot by a tree. They are not sure when Godot is coming or what Godot looks like, except that Godot will come to this tree and when he arrives, everything will be better. So they wait, unhappily.

How often are we waiting for something or someone to come along and make our lives suddenly better? We don’t know when they’re coming or what form Godot will take, but we are sure that it’s worth waiting for and we’ll start living after Godot arrives. Is Godot the perfect job? The perfect significant other? The perfect group of friends?

The two unhappy men are not tied to the tree that they are waiting by; they can leave whenever they want. The only thing holding them is knowing that Godot might come and he could possibly make things better. If we are unhappy, how often have we waited uncomfortably because something (or someone) that is not here yet might be able to make it better, if only we wait right here.

Why are we here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion, one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come. — Samuel Beckett

The English teacher who assigned this book is a woman of habit. For many years, she taught the same three subjects in the same classrooms in the same manner (mind you, she is brilliant) every single day. A creature of routine and habit, you knew exactly where she was because she moved through her schedule like clockwork, each minute dictated by her predetermined schedule.

But one year, she took a moment to step back and re-evaluate her life. She realized she did not enjoy teaching journalism anymore. And she quit.

I’ve thought about this play and my teacher often throughout my college career, particularly when I felt complacent, bored, or unhappy. How brave of this teacher to stop waiting for that Godot and walk away simply because she could.

This play taught me the lesson I carried with me throughout college: don’t wait for good things to come to you. When I was unhappy with my major, I searched for one that I loved (and found two, actually). When I hated my job, I got a new internship (leaving administrative work for an incredible global marketing internship). To embrace change, as small as deciding to start yoga or as big as quitting a job, is an incredibly courageous act because the unknown future is, well, unknown. But my greatest achievements happened when I stopped waiting for things to come and went looking for these things myself. Moving forward, moving away,just moving, just stop waiting for Godot; this is a high school lesson that shaped and continues to shape me today.

My much-loved English teacher was presented with a parting gift by her last journalism class, a silver box. Engraved on the box were the words: “She moves.”