against all odds

Did I have an extraordinary day today or what! Where should I start? Well, to give you a little background: I was asked to give a workshop to a bunch of high school students about the effects of advertising. It is part of a Comenius joint project in which schools of Spain, Italy, Poland, France, and Hungary take place. I got this email one day that a certain lady from a certain high school (both unknown for me) kindly asks if I would be willing to share my expertise. I was suprised coz I cannot say I get a lot of requests like this, but I was also very enthusiastic. The project was a challenge, because it's one thing that I know a lot about the topic and present it to professionals and colleagues, but what kids know about it, I had the faintest idea. So I prepared a lot and was looking forward to the day to come.

Whatever, and I am not exaggerating, whatever could go wrong and test my nerves, did. I mean, really. The only thing that saved me was that I was soo damn prepared that probably nobody would have. 

As a start, I had to go out of Budapest to a town I've never been to. I checked the schedule, the stops and the locations of the stops on google maps. The coach stop, however, was not where it was supposed to be. Even though I arrived to the place 25 mins earlier, I finally found the right stop only 3 mins before departure! OK, sigh, I made it.

With that bus I was supposed to arrive to the town of Halásztelek at 10.05 AM. That would have given me more than half an hour to prepare the room, the speakers, the internet, the videos, etc, and familiarize myself with the school and the teachers, let alone with the students, before starting the class at 10.45. Nevertheless, at 10.05, when I was supposed to already be walking to the school at Halásztelek, the bus hadn't even left Budapest!! There was such a huge traffic jam, coz we had ice on the streets today, that we were practically crawling not driving. I was already giving it up to ever arrive. But just when I let go, the bus started to move and I arrived to the town at 10.38 and to the school at 10.45. Just on time, as they say. :-)

Physically I was there, but arriving like this meant I had no mental preparation of course. Well, let's get over that! Coz then came the next challenge. I looked into the room, and, instead of the promised 30 students, they were, no kidding, 80! All the students from 4 grades! That just means it was COMPLETELY inadequate for the type of tasks I had prepared for (like group discussion and project work). But no panic still. 

Then I went on stage -- literally, it was a theater hall -- and started to set up the laptop with the projector. I had asked the organizers at least 3 times in advance if they have internet, laptop, projector, and speakers. "Of course!" quoteth the lady. "Of course my ass!" replieth reality.

During the one-hour show, we replugged the internet 3 times, started my prezi 4 times, couldn't play the video only from a third source I brought, waited for the speakers to arrive for 5 mins, and had an electric shortage with complete darkness (!) in the room, and I could continue. And imagine this with 80 students staring at me and murmuring. Of course the whole thing was a chaos -- compared to, at least, what I am used to from unversity classes or conferences -- and I could interact only with, let's say, the first 3 rows of students -- the rest, the majority was just making noise. But guess what, in the end some kids came to me and asked stuff, and the organizers proposed that I should give more lectures for them in the future. So, I reckon, it was a strange form of success.

You know why it was a great experience? Exactly because nothing about it was perfect. And I didn't give up and freeze or panic. It was a mind-opening experience to feel that it is just about accepting the present and making the most of it that really makes one content. Not a perfect show -- coz there is no such.