Pa'a Ka Mana'o!

Doing something with the skills and talent you have and acquire throughout your life rather than just keeping them for your own use is crucial. Like it says in the Bible- “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”-, you could have amazing talents, but if you don’t apply them and use them for other people, you’re as useless as a clanging cymbal. Personally, to prepare myself for the world of application, I will work on not only memorizing the knowledge I acquire, but making it pa’a. My kumu always tell me that there is a difference between memorizing and things pa’a. Memorizing is the step below pa’a; you know the information, but you can’t apply it. Pa’a is when you know the information and you can use it to make the world a better place. This is similar to test taking. Personally, I am a horrible test taker. I know all of the knowledge most of the time; I just can’t put it on the test paper. Like my history teacher told me, knowledge isn’t worth anything unless you can show other people what you can do. In conclusion, in order to prepare for a world that doesn’t care what I know but rather what I do with what I know, I will make sure my information is pa’a, firm in my mind, because if it’s not, I might as well be a worthless, noisy gong.