Two Values in 2022: Consistency and Adaptability

Earlier this year, I was sitting in the audience in a music hall in the Chicago area listening to my daughter perform a classical clarinet piece as a part of a summer showcase. This was the culmination of a two-week summer school class taken at a university conservatory. As the show ended, my wife and I were both proud and humbled. Thanks to modern travel, we were able to get from Texas to this university in Chicago, and thanks to the dedicated faculty of this university, our daughter was able to be part of a rather impressive show featuring many students from around the country who plan to study music for a career.

In a world where war, violence, and negative politics dominate the headlines, classical music pieces pierce through the noise to the heart. For a brief time, there is peace.

Finding that place where we receive clarity is part of the transformative experience of study abroad. Yet, this comes as a result of two seemingly competing values: consistency and adaptability. We need both to appreciate the importance of each.

Preparing for the Unknown

Without consistency, we are not sure how to define adaptation. And without dedicated staff to show up each day, we don’t have the processes in place to create norms that make adaptation a value. Showing up day after day to experience change seems paradoxical or counterintuitive. Yet, this is what I have thought about over and again within international education in the past year.

We don’t know if travel will be interrupted, but we prepare the best we can anyway. We don’t know if war will continue, if governments will topple, if a virus outbreak will shut things down, or if the flight is cancelled. This is not in our power to know such things. Our responsibility is to show up so that we don’t miss whatever we are meant to see.

When my daughter finished playing, we made arrangements for my wife to fly to Missouri so that she could be at the hospital when her mother had surgery on her brain to remove a tumor. I was to return home with my daughter to get my son so that we could meet my wife in a few days. There was a lot going on and it depended on planes, trains, and automobiles all working. To engage deeply in the muck and mire of life, people needed to show up. And yet, we all need to adapt. We were doing our best to be present in a life that seemed to have twists and turns around every corner.

While waiting for our flight back to Texas at Chicago O’Hare airport, I received a call from one of my university colleagues. The judicial process of a student who had been studying abroad was coming to an end, and a decision was going to be made. This would interrupt the program a bit and impact the academic future of the student. I looked at my daughter, who pointed to the monitor that now had a red ‘Delayed’ update near our flight. She said, “Bonus time in the airport,” and we smiled.

The Power of Showing Up

Within international education, the mantra to be flexible, adaptable, respectful, and attentive all matters. We get to do the work we do because of the myriad number of others who show up day after day. With the cultural emphasis in America on change and progress and innovation, we do well to remember and celebrate those systems that stabilize things in the background. I am grateful for electricity that allows the Zoom meetings to go off without a hitch. This allows me to be adaptable when there is a mechanical issue delaying my flight. And the list goes on.

We understand disappointment to be the gap between expectations and reality. In the world of social media, disappointment seems to be a thriving industry. Yet, this past year, the gap between expectations and reality can be difficult, but it’s also on us.

We are the ones that create our own expectations after all. Reality is the show we’ve been asked to participate in—and it’s a really good one. The rich texture of new food, new languages, and new people is part of the reality that we offer within international education. We create these opportunities by showing up every day and building systems that work.

When our flight landed in Dallas, I called my wife to see how things were going in Missouri. She said her parents were really glad she was there. My daughter said the same thing to us about her concert. She was glad we were there. Within international education, we focus a lot on new cultures and new experiences, but all these are made possible by those who show up consistently. We are here navigating the unexpected and exercising our adaptive muscle because others showed up to be there when we needed them. To truly innovate and change something, you must first show up.

I am raising a glass to toast those who show up. Sometimes I take them for granted. Noticing those working behind the scenes is as important as getting to Paris on time. I should be more consistent about seeing people show up every day. I should say thank you more often and I should even sit down and jot a note of thanks to those who do not always stand out front. As far as travel…I’ll get to France when I get there.  •