A Reflection On The Past Year – Anderson Connect

In this week’s Anderson Connect, we will be sharing the following, hope you enjoy!

• COVID-19 Update
• Reflection on the past year
• 2 Short Stories
• Our Lucky Contest Winner
• Happy St Patrick’s Day

COVID-19 Update

As of March 8th, 2021, the Ontario government announced all regions will be back in the COVID-19 response framework. Toronto is currently in the grey zone. Everyone is strongly advised to continue to stay at home, avoid social gatherings, minimize travel between areas with different restrictions, and limit close contacts to their household.

Reflection On The Past Year

March 16th, 2021 marks a milestone for all of us here at Anderson College, as it will be exactly one year since we transitioned to either learning virtually or working from home. We can all agree the past year has had its challenges, however we are hopeful for the future and we are looking forward to when we can all see each other again. As some of you may remember, late last year we ran an essay competition called My 2020, during which we asked students and staff to highlight why 2020 was a memorable year for them. We were so pleased by the huge number of responses we received! We are honoured to share these heart-warming stories as a tribute to our one-year virtual anniversary. Click this link to read all the amazing entries.

Short Stories

The Donkey

An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked. As they went along, they passed some people remarked it was a shame the old man was walking, and the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Then, later, they passed some people who remarked, “What a shame, he makes that little boy walk.” So, they then decided they’d both walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey. They then passed some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey.

The boy and man figured they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

Moral of the story: You won’t ever be able to please everyone, so do your best and be kind to others, even if people criticise you.

The Old Farmer

There is a story of an old farmer who had an old horse for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and, when all the farmer’s neighbours sympathised with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, ‘Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?’

A week later the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbours congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, ‘Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?’

Then, when the farmer’s son was attempted to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, ‘Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?’

Some weeks later the army marched into the village and enlisted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer’s son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?

Moral of the story: We decide what events mean to us. We are not just cast around by our circumstances. We are the crafters of our own experience.

Our Lucky Contest Winner!

We recently organized a giveaway on Instagram with a chance to win a $25 gift card. The rules to enter this giveaway were very easy, you simply had to like the post, follow us, and then tag your friends. We want to thank all who participated, and we hope that you had fun entering our giveaway!

Our lucky winner was Nelly P. who was selected at random and won the $25 gift card. Congratulations on her win!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

We all know when March the 17th is around the corner, our shops are filled with green decorations, the sun starts to show itself a little more and you can almost smell the Guinness brewing. As we embrace different cultural and religious celebrations, we would like to wish anyone that celebrates St Patrick’s Day a good one!

Credit: Coffee photo created by karlyukav – www.freepik.com