I don't like driving in Basel, Switzerland (pronounced Ba-zel with a short a). In spite of the fact that I have my GPS on to guide me, I find that driving in the city of Basel leaves me feeling stressed and anxious. My GPS will tell me to take a slight right as I see several options for a "slight right" and ask my GPS "Which one?!" There are streets laid out every which way along with tram tracks, street lights, bikes, buses, pedestrian walkways (pedestrians have the right away and one must always yield at a crosswalk) and the Autobahn you might accidently drive on, not to mention other drivers everywhere! Then there is parking! I had an appointment in Basel last week and struggled to find a place to park so I parallel parked on the street (totally rocked the parallel parking!) then looked at the windshields of the other cars and for a parking meter to see what the rules were for that particular street. Other cars had a print-out of some kind which I did not have so I put out the parkschein (photo below from Google images) and prayed that I would not get a ticket or worse, towed. Thankfully, the car was still there when I returned and there was not a ticket. Whew!
Dear friends of mine came to visit me at the end of their cruise down the Rhein back in October. I drove to Basel and picked them up, only having to turn around once on the way there. When they got in the car, I continued to drive down the road I was on not realizing I was driving on tram tracks where cars were not allowed! As I realized I was in the wrong spot, a tram was coming from the opposite direction with the driving waving his finger at me and shaking his head no indicating that I was where I should not be! Oops! Within a few seconds, I found a street to get off the tram tracks then followed my GPS and the road signs (Germany and Switzerland are great with having signs indicating where one needs to go!) to a particular parking garage. While driving, one of my friends was asking me questions about particular math levels in the middle school to which I could not answer while driving in Basel. When I was parked, I was able to relax, turn to my guests and say, "Welcome! It is so wonderful to see you and have you here!" Haha!!
What lesson can I take from these experiences? Even though I don't enjoy driving in Basel, I realize that I need to gain more experience and confidence which means I need more opportunities to drive in this city.
Sometimes, God asks us to take on a new role, job, or task that we really don't feel qualified in or desire to pursue. Yet, at the same time, he provides the encouragement and strength we need as we step into a new learning opportunity. Some examples from my life include when first coming to Germany to teach at BFA, I came as a math teacher and was not open to other roles, particularly to teach science. When asked to teach science several years ago, I initially pushed back feeling as I was not qualified that I should not be taking on this particular role. After taking some time to consider the idea, I reluctantly stepped into the role of a 7th grade science teacher and today, I love it! I love finding ways for my students to grasp the material in a new way, finding fun resources for students to interact with the curriculum with hands-on activities, experiments and projects. In my Master's class this past semester, I dug into science curriculum, studied a set of standards, researched different curriculums that have different attributes and learned from my peers.
Trying something new can be scary at first, but I find as I give myself time to thoughtfully consider a new task and to break it down into manageable steps, I begin to feel more confident that I can step into that new task. I feel my courage rise and am more willing to take on a new role after I have considered it for a few days.
Here are a few photos I found on Google images for driving in Basel. If you come and see me, I can give you the first hand experience! :)
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