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As with any new endeavor come new challenges. Most of you have experienced and have overcome these types of things before, hopefully. Challenges are good; they make us stronger and more resilient. If you don’t believe me, check your middle manager’s coffee mug. You doctor’s office depicts a mythical golf course with the tee separated from the pin by the ocean and reminds you about “Persistence.” It always seemed to remind me how expensive golf balls are.

But what about those everyday challenges? Like trying to operate a washing machine when all the buttons are in Korean. Or tying your shoe with a paper cut on your finger. Or sending an email on that sleek, convenient, time-saving BlackBerry when you have stubby thumbs. Or how about when you’re trying to pick up that dime you dropped with freshly cut fingernails. It’s nice of the dime to have that extra grip on the edge, but why in the world is it smaller than the nickel? If you don’t pick it up, your breakfast at Dunkin Donuts will be $5.09 and you’ll have to break a $20. Don’t you love challenges?

I do my best to have a good time with my challenges. Otherwise, I may go mad, assuming I haven’t already. Humor helps keep my sane, or so I tell myself. One challenge I do get a kick out of, is grading my students diaries and themed writings. Many of my kids are fantastically bright, which makes for some very interesting writing. Many times their inability to translate ideas into English words is cause for my inability to keep a straight face.

I usually begin putting my thoughts on paper in Microsoft Word because I like many of the Auto Correct features it offers. It allows me to be grammatically incorrect, and being an English teacher, I find that very valuable. For this post however, I would like to share with you one of my student’s stories, so I will need to be careful about the Auto Correct options because I want to make sure you get the full effect of the challenge that lies within grading such complex literary works.

“The Turtle” By: Eddy

“One day, one baby turtle get out of turtle egg and went sea to do travel. Baby turtle’s shell is very soft. Now Turtle can only hide and eat tiny crabs and shrimps. She’s flying under water. Now, her shell is hard, and head is tough as a helmet and she can eat crabs, too. Her name is now logger head.

She wanders far and wide in search of food. At night, she got out of water and made eggs and hide in the sea again. When babys get out of eggs, they dead because other animals eat. But on baby turtle get in the water because she have to travel like mom.”

Such a wonderful story about the escapades of a logger head turtle and the challenges she faces when laying eggs. Or in Eddy would say, she got out at night and made eggs. Sounds like something a drunk collegiate roommate would do.

How do I even begin to correct Eddy’s story? I have a pretty good idea of what he wants to say, and many of the sentences make sense if they were to be literally translated into Korean, but I teach English, so therein lies my challenge. All things considered, it’s not that bad. I just chuckle to myself on the way to Office Depot to pick up more red pens. I accept the challenge. After all, if I don’t accept the challenge, I might have to break a $20 to buy those pens.

Moral of the Story: A challenge is a learning experience incognito.

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