Listening Genuinely, Speak Less

Update on **1 January 2017**

peaceful road and nice views in the campus 

A former student messaged me through Facebook couple days ago. He was the only student that remained to say hello regularly after I left the former workplace.

We updated each other’s recent life. But most of the conversation revolved around his grumbles about the current college.

College’s terrible management system, unfairness of the lecturer, poor friendship-the list kept going. All his messages quite long compared to me who was short and simple.

I knew, he just wanted to voice out his dissatisfactions. He wanted a listener even though we were not face to face.

I believed God created us as the humans had 2 ears but 1 mouth signified we should listen more rather than talking.

Sincerely and genuinely listened make him the important person in the world at that moment. 

Listening really provided much comfort.

He also wanted someone that went through the same thing and told him everything will be fine. So, I told him:

That’s fine to get C+ instead of B or B+. That’s fine to take more subjects relative to other peers to solve the credit hours problems according to the management decision.

That’s fine to worry for financial as he needed to support the school fees by himself. That’s fine to headache for parking spaces as he depended on himself for schooling.

Everything will be fine along with tons of encouragements and motivations. Human ears not only subjected to noises and chatters but also encouragement, comfort and confidence.  

At that moment, I didn’t want to give “mature talk”-about how he should change his perceptions towards lecturer bias and poor friendship. Thinking positive for the parking spaces and financial issues.

I didn’t want to take the risk. I wish I could continue this type of listening relationship to spread the seeds of hope, love and peace for him.