Grab every opportunity

Last year I was asked to attend a workshop on ‘AIDS AWARENESS’. It was not a part of my work profile so as a normal expected behaviour I protested.
‘Why should I know about AIDS?’ ‘Once I attend this workshop, I will be asked to take sessions for students and maybe teachers also’ ‘I will be detracting from my core profession of being a special educator’ and many more such thoughts came to my mind. I also voiced a few of these thoughts to the authorities but they went unheard and ultimately I had to attend the two day workshop. So I went for the first session in protest.
This was being conducted by the Maharashtra Aids Society and was a well planned and informative session. As the session proceeded, I learnt so many new things…it was an eye opener. We always think and believe that a particular issue does not concern us. We do not know anyone who is suffering from AIDS, what can I do about it etc, etc

But believe me after attending the session I learnt a lot and understood the gravity of the situation in India. I felt responsible for spreading awareness among teenagers (since I had access to them) who could become victims due to lack of awareness about AIDS. Surely we conducted AIDS awareness programs for teachers and students of high school(I volunteered to do it!!). Many young students came up with many valid questions and I was happy that I could satisfy their curiosity. Before attending the workshop,I was inhibited to talk about sex or any related topics openly. In fact I had never spoken about this to my own children when they were small.Fortunately they were science students and probably managed to gain information from their own sources. And here was me explaining facts to students without a shade of embarassment. I had surely benefitted.
But the most important lesson that I learnt from this ….Everything that we learn in life is never a waste. GRAB every opportunity to learn and make the most of it.