From the author: An article-reflection for those who teach and who learn, who grow, develop and help others in this. Original on the site: Today I had a dialogue-correspondence with an old friend. The conversation was about some high things, about awareness, knowledge, etc. As happens in such cases, we did not come to a common denominator. We talked and stayed the same. It’s difficult to talk about awareness in general; it either exists, or it’s just talk. But after communicating, I realized one simple thing: we are all different, and each of us has our own path and our own speed of development. There is a lot of knowledge, ideas, and worldview options in this world. Even if people adhere to the same faith, they can have different degrees of depth and understanding of this faith. And today a picture emerged for me that helped me accept differences in the level of awareness, stop running behind others and accept my pace of growth. Life is one big school. Each of us is in our own class. Some are in first grade, some are in fifth grade, some are already in graduation. To say that one of them is cooler than the other is to laugh at the caterpillar for its ugliness. Although without the caterpillar there would be no butterfly. Any class is a natural stage of growth. If you are in the fifth today, it means there was a time when you were in the first. Yes, not everyone reaches the eleventh level in one life; some remain in the first, second or third. Each level has its own teachers. The teacher's level corresponds to the class level. Those who study in the fifth understand those who are themselves at the fifth level. Perhaps they will understand someone who is in sixth grade, but not an eleventh grader. Because there they already operate with other concepts that fifth-graders have not yet matured into. It is important to appreciate any teacher. You cannot devalue someone who teaches children in first grade, because he provides the foundation. Yes, being a fifth-level teacher, people from the eleventh grade will not come to study with you. But you have your own audience - those who have just finished fourth grade. Your knowledge is what they need. If you are a seeking and developing teacher, then you will also strive for your growth, and you will grow further, mastering the sixth and seventh grade curriculum. Some of your students will grow with you. And some will stay in the current situation for a long time. But this does not mean that those who teach in the ninth are more important than you. If there were no primary school teachers in the world, children would not receive an important foundation and would not know basic arithmetic. Because those who teach in high school usually don’t like to bother with children, they are interested in solving more serious problems. Each of us has our own path. Some go faster, some go slower. Due to my perfectionism, I wanted to immediately know the whole truth at once. But life is not a movie where taking a pill will change everything. Usually, it takes time to grow. Therefore, it has become easier for me to accept that today I may not know something, may not want to understand something, or simply not be ready to learn the “higher mathematics” of life. I go at my own pace. I used to worry a lot about the fact that 2 years ago I talked and wrote about one thing, but now I look at life a little differently. And it seemed like it turned out that I was betraying people’s trust. But I gained new experience and developed further only because I completed training in the junior class and lived this experience. And if people accepted my knowledge, it means that at that stage of their lives they needed it. Of course, the question may arise - how to understand whether it is worth listening to another person? It is difficult for me to give a definite answer. But for myself, I made the following conclusion. The main thing is that this knowledge makes life simpler and more harmonious. If what they tell me coincides with my worldview, we are probably on the same level with the person. If what they say is not very different in more the advanced side, then I listen. It is important to be able to connect new thoughts with what I already have. A radically different worldview is very difficult to accept right away, because the gap between what you know is too big.