Being Patient is a priceless virtue.

 Patience is one of my weaker attributes, has always been and probably incurable, will always be: I lack patience. I have been told time and again that I should have waited, persevered, allow for nature to take its course, do be in such a haste...I was a very impatient young man growing up. I most probably had missed out on many great opportunities in the course of my life by simple having lack of patience. I was once told by my Secondary School math teacher to slow down and take my time growing old. This happened when I told him that i was wasting his time and he mine as i had no hope of ever learning about maths. I had asked him if i could be excused from his class to spend my time in the Library instead, he agreed and later we had our talk where he told me to slow down. On the Lower Certificate of Examination (LCE) day, when the maths papers were handed out i simply wrote my name on it and walked out of the examination hall and the same I did when I sat for School Certificate (SC) exam. I do not look back on these events with pride, but i was a determined impatient young man growing up with no regard for the consequences of my actions.
While living in Wisconsin I went through many great changes in my life both for the better and the worse and one of the major events that changed my life was being accepted as a student at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. I was working at a meat packing plant in downtown Milwaukee at the time and was in the process of going through a divorce; my future then was bleak and I had ran out of options. Then i was invited by my friend and neighbor Alan Hautamaki who was then working as a Councillor at the University in Green Bay. Alan told my to put my mind to better use than being a butcher and i can do this by becoming a student at the University. I told Alan that i did not qualify to join the University as my School Certificate exam was below average. He asked me what SC was and when i told him he simply said ,never heard of it. He asked me if i was willing to go through a college lifefor a few years and i told most definitely but what would do i have to to qualify. Sit for the SAT test he said. Dos this include having to sit for a math paper? Yes for sure, he said. Then forget it, I told him and explained why. 
Alan later introduced me to Dr.Amstrong a Math Professor and Councillor who listened to my stories and later became my adviser and under his tutelage i scored three test papers with 100% correct answers and thus qualified to become a University student. I spent over four years of my life as a University student; some of the best times of my life and some of the worse, but i graduated with a Fine Arts Degree. Now upon looking back i come to realize that nothing was impossible given the time and the patience to endure and persevere. My meditation practice began as an effort towards developing patience in me as opposed to the impatience i had with me that often ended with serious anger problems. It was easier to blame my issues upon others but when i was exposed to the spiritual arts such as meditation and Yoga my life took on a whole new perspective and my priorities changed for the better. As I make my entries into this Blog, I still feel the residue of my impatience nagging at me, like why am i wasting my time when I am not making a dime at doing this.
One of the lessons i learned from my Maths experience in school was that i am my own stumbling block, i place the invisible walls around me and shut off any chances of a success in my life. I learn too that i can and able to master my own destiny if and when i put my mind to it with patience and perseverance,; the walls can be knocked down and i can transcend all odds given the right mind and patience is a virtue that every man with a desire to overcome his travails must develop  a right understanding of.