Quotes from the talk:
“My hope is that you students and teachers will receive the help that came to me when I was a struggling student and when I was a new teacher. That help came first when, as an undergraduate, I was not only struggling but also beginning to feel that I was trying to learn something that was completely beyond me. The more I felt overwhelmed, the less I could sustain my efforts to keep trying.”
“This first happened long ago as I sought to learn physics and mathematics in my college years. I felt overwhelmed. It seemed to me that the other students could work the problems and master the material more quickly than I could. During examinations, I’ve had experiences that I think you’ve had. I would start with the first question. When I couldn’t see how to answer it, I would think, “well, I’ll go on to the next question.” I still remember the feeling of fear, really terror when I got to the last question and realized that I didn’t know how to do and answer any of them.”
“As time wore on, my discouragement led me to feel that it was useless to study. I began to play a little more basketball or I forgot what I did. I begin to think of quitting…”
“It was on a night during that time of discouragement when I received the help that made all the difference for me. I can remember it as if it had just happened. Help came as a voice, an actual voice in my mind. It was not my voice. It was a soft and loving voice—but firm. The words voiced were these:”
When you realize who you really are, you will be sorry that you didn’t try harder.
“I began to try to understand that message of encouragement. By pondering and working during the years that followed, I came to realize who I really was. I was a spirit child of God. I had inherent in me the potential to learn what He knows.”
“…I could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost as a companion. And I came to know that by the power of the Holy Ghost, we may know the truth of all things.”
This is why I am still studying, after many episodes of not being able to see how to solve the problems, or even understand what I was reading or watching in video tutorials…
I know who I am!
Original speech by Henry B. Eyring, 6 November 2018, BYU Business College Devotional (bold and italics added)
