Learning Patience from Sister de Sales
by Amy Devere, Assistant Athletic Director and Athletic Trainer
I am not a patient person and I'm sure this comes as no surprise to those who know me. My mother will tell you that's the Devere side in me. We walk fast, talk fast and generally hope to do things in the shortest amount of time possible. Heaven forbid something go wrong and we must take more time to complete the task. I imagine a LOT of people struggle with this virtue and in this fast-paced, instant notification/gratification world, having patience is a hard sell. We tend to lose patience more easily than we gain it.
So, what happens when we are forced to be patient? By good fortune, I am forced to be patient at the end of the school year. For the last nine years, I have assumed the engraving duties for the academic awards. Having inherited the responsibility from Sr. Mary de Sales, I wait (not so) patiently for the administration to tabulate grades, review nominations, and choose the rightful awardees. Engraving over seventy pieces in a short window of time already feels daunting, but having to wait for names, makes the struggle even worse. But every year as I sit down in the room to engrave, with a large photo of Sister hanging on the wall watching over me, I am reminded why I wait. I wait because Sr. de Sales showed me the love that she put into every piece she engraved. Letter by letter, line by line, she etched a name, a date, a swirl and gave those students a memory to keep of their time at Visitation. Gleefully, she used to bound down the steps to the room where the engraving machine was kept and would have the biggest smile on her face after she finished a piece and say, "Isn't that neat?" Sister also cautioned against rushing and to always double-check the spelling as there is no backspace in engraving and "mistakes are money." She would regale me with stories of her days at Visitation and of her family during those hours I spent watching her work on each piece. Be it a medal, a rosary or a plate, each of these tasks she had done for so many years seemed effortless - that anyone could do it. Spoiler alert: it is not effortless. In fact, it was completely overwhelming when I had to go it alone. What seemed to take Sister minutes, seemed to take me an hour. Panic set in that first year as I assumed I could do it more quickly because I was younger and faster. Funny enough, as I've gotten older and slower, my time spent engraving seems to go smoothly. Engraving is my reminder to be patient and to accept this gift.
There is an African proverb that says "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together" and so every May, Sister de Sales watches over me and we go together, letter by letter, line by line, and work patiently to complete the task. I cannot go fast, because I cannot do it alone. Sister is watching. Isn't that neat?