The pawned word

This is a phrase that since I was a child I used to hear at home and in my family, the term “pawn” is to give someone something of value, a kind of jewel in exchange for money, and most importantly is to give the word of commitment to another person with the “honor” committed to the promise of fulfillment of this.

So if we see the two concepts extracted from the internet we realize that it is to place something valuable to us in the middle of a word where we commit to be responsible and fulfill what we are offering at that moment.

Since we were little (in my house) we were taught to value that “word promised” that our commitment was above all, that even the time to get to a place for us should be paramount, because that was a sign of responsible people and we learned to appreciate and recognize our time and that of others, something that today I put into practice for activities, events and meetings, for me it is important and gives me much to recognize how are the people around me for that moment.

Once, years ago, I started teaching a first aid course, and I remember clearly that my class schedule was from 2 pm to 4 pm and the first day I arrived 15 minutes early, I wanted to see who arrived early and I closed the door at 2.15 minutes. Many arrived after that time and I warned them that my way of working was that, always start on time, a girl stood up and told me that I should be a little condescending to other students who lived a little far from the hospital where the course was taking place, to which I indicated that I lived far away and arrived before the hour because I left earlier in anticipation of any eventuality.

The second day I closed 10 minutes after the hour and the third day I locked the door at 2 pm and ignored every touch, every call from outside, at the end of the class, there were more than 10 students out of class, disgusted by my attitude, to which I replied: “they all committed with their word to be here before the hour and it turns out that it was not so, they are already warned that three absences lose the subject and if they are not in class they are non-attendees”.

I accept that I was very hard I commented to my husband at night, but I was convinced that I was doing something right, the next day a student approached me and told me that she should arrive a few minutes late because her work schedule ended half an hour before the start of my class and it was almost impossible for her to arrive at the agreed time, to which I graciously accepted her explanation, and I communicated it to the class.

From the fifth day of the 3 months of classes I must say that no one else, including the girl who told me that she could not arrive on time, arrived late to my class, I felt proud of them and of me, the last day of classes I arrived 15 minutes late and the concern and the complaint for my tardiness were not long in coming, but that day contrary to what everyone expected me to give them a final exam, it was a class on “THE WORD I WANTED”.