Gaétan...

As there were students my own age, it reassured me and I told myself that I was as capable as the others. I completed my course with a 94% average, I who told myself that I was no good. In February 2001, I received my diploma on a Friday, and that Sunday, I was starting work in a senior citizens’ home: La Villa Beauséjour de Caraquet.

Today, I have a sense of pride and accomplishment. Before, I was always negative, I felt judged, I was searching for happiness, I didn’t know what it meant to be happy. In my ignorance, I was hurting myself and others. Today, I have more power over my life. I know myself better, so I am better able to understand others. We all have a right to make mistakes; it’s only human and there’s always room for starting over, for being reborn. I have a career that I like and where I have a chance to make remarkable progress. I am learning to be more tolerant and more patient, two qualities that I had but were not developed.

Also, with my wife, I take part in the diocese movement “La Flambée” in which I began my personal growth four years ago. Inside that movement of mutual aid, I feel valued and I can speak in front of people who really listen to me.

Education isn’t only knowing how to read, write, and count, but also understanding what we read, write, and say. The message I would like to pass on is to know yourself first, in order to know who you really are. It’s then that we see that we’re just as important as anyone else. We are all important, no matter our job, our social standing, or anything else. We all belong to the same family, and if one member is missing, nothing goes as well. French is my mother tongue, and I now know, that it’s not enough to speak or read French, I also have to understand it.”

Gaétan has become a more calm and more confident person, therefore a more tolerant one. He has improved his communication skills which makes his life easier and makes him more positive. He knows how to accept constructive criticism and no longer sees it as a judgment. For him, learning means opening yourself to others and to life, in order to improve your quality of life, as well as the quality of life of those close to you. It also means taking the potential that resides in all of us and letting it surface in order to benefit others. This is how he found the joy he was searching for: INSIDE OF HIMSELF.

Written by Linda Haché, for Gaétan Haché, Maltempec NB