In this semester, I taught for the first time a course from a program called Honours College Leiden. It is the program that only Leiden Law students with top grades can participate and take extra courses on top of their regular law courses. The regular courses I usually teach have over 50 students signing up for each course, but this Honours College’s course is designed with a small group, so the maximum number of students with 26 joined the course (although more than 50 students wanted to enroll, I heard).
With this kind of courses with a small group of students, there is a wider range of activities and assignments we teacher can try out in class. I could make the lectures more interactive, and I gave them a group assignment whose outcome they presented. At the end of the course, I received many positive comments from the students – kinds of comments that I would not have believed I’d have if asked to myself a few years ago when I started teaching. But among them all, this one game me little goose-bumps.
Your lectures have changed my perspective on life and society, which I will take with me for the rest of my life.
When I was hesitating whether I should take on with academic career, a decisive factor was the memory of the encounter with my current boss – whom I met when I was an exchange student in Leiden. Over 10 years ago when I did an exchange year in Leiden during my bachelor study, I took his courses on “Law and Governance in Indonesia” and “Law and Culture”. His lectures reminded me of the joy of learning with curiosity. And his personality, his positive energy, his kindest and humble attitude influenced my view of life. In other words, having met him as a professor at the university has ‘changed my life’.
Looking back, all the turning points in my life have been encounters with people and the impression they made on me. My homeroom teacher in the third grade of primary school. A trainee teacher who came for a few weeks when I was in high school. My tennis coach. My PhD supervisor. Also some friends, and sometimes people I met only once, but some of their words have left deep impression on me that I still remember them sometimes. All these people I met have become the dots, connected, lead me to the person I am today.
I feel as if I have been running all way long after having my daughter ten years ago. I’ve been working to build my career as if my life depends on it. And now, the job that I’ve dreamed of having, the position I cannot imagine any better in the world, is in my hands. It fell into my hands with a flop, as if it just has to be there. I’ve been so eager to grow and learn, but in the next ten years, in my thirties, I would like to shift my focus a little more onto what I can give to others and what kind of positive influence I can be on people around me. One is of course the transfer of the knowledge, the way and joy of learning. But the ‘giving’ is not only that – but also in terms of the way of being and living. Just like how he influenced me by the way he is, he acts, and interacts. His priorities in life. Or put more simply, being a ‘good person’. Just by being who he is, he has a positive influence on those around him.
I am not teaching in this semester, and preparing and reflecting for my next lectures. I am thinking of my students, whom I have yet to meet, and of what I can do and give them in the few weeks I have for one course.
Hoko Horii 