Empowerment

I laid fiberglass this week.  I don’t recommend this as a profession, although I have newfound admiration for the craftsmen and women who do this for a living.  It is hard and dirty work, but the results can be truly wonderful. 

So, here’s me in the bilge, laying strips of rapidly disappearing fiberglass to rows of resin over spots that I prepped over the week through hours of grinding.  Here’s me thinking thoughts like “why didn’t they tell me not to touch it?  Why didn’t they tell me how to mix the resin without making a mess?  How do I get the fingers of my gloves un-stuck?”

This is, of course, experiential education.  My own education born of yet another new experience and a new skill.  Knowing the theory of  how fiberglass is laid or simply  watching fiberglass laid, are pale shadows compared to actually doing the job myself.  Do I enjoy doing it?  No.  But I feel so empowered through having done it that it is worth every whiff of styrene and every itch of fiberglass.

The often unmeasurable results of experiential education lie in this sense of empowerment.