Once upon a time in a galaxy not far enough away, there was a Jedi Knight happily going along his business. He knew the ways of the Force and used them when fit, yet knew when to use lesser means when they were good enough. He enjoyed teaching Padawans the ways of the Force and on most days, tried to do so to the best of his ability. He had always felt that he could teach it to anyone, even to those with lower midi-chlorian counts.
One day, the Jedi Knight was introduced to someone who wanted to be a Jedi Knight. During the screening process, it quickly became apparent that she had a rather low midi-chlorian count. It was doubtful that she was even fit for training, let alone actually working as a Jedi Knight. Nevertheless, a deal was made, the details of which i’ll spare you, so she could begin an apprenticeship with the Jedi Knight. After all, the Jedi Knight arrogantly thought “if anyone can teach her, it’s me”. Thus began the adventure.
The Jedi Knight knew that he would have to start from scratch with this Padawan. The little she knew had to be unlearned, only to be replaced with other bits of knowledge. She was to go through a careful path of learning steps, each one of them slightly increasing in difficulty. On the first day of her journey, she was told about the Force. The Jedi Knight tried explaining, in a high-level, what kind of things she would need to learn, and how those techniques and skills would benefit her. After that, she was assigned her first task.
Not surprisingly, there were some bumps in the road during that first task. The Jedi Knight was used to this. “They all have a slow first week”, he thought, thinking that the situation would gradually improve. The Padawan asked questions, the Jedi Knight answered them and tried to explain everything as clearly as he possibly could. Alas, some of the questions were repeated. The Jedi Knight again tried to answer them, in some cases even showing her the way by completing parts of the task himself. He had hoped that this would encourage the Padawan, that it would foster her willingness to learn and try harder.
At the same time, the Jedi Knight was responsible for the battle against a legacy system which was created with the best of intentions, but over time had been taken over by the Sith. There was no peace, no order, no structure, only chaos, darkness, and disrespect to everything the Force is supposed to stand for. The Jedi Knight couldn’t face this challenge on his own, and was thankful to have a few worthy Jedi’s on his side to help win the battle. And although he had to lead them in battle, he gladly shared some of his responsibilities with his most trusted lieutenant. And as if the battle wasn’t challenging enough, he was now also responsible for this young Padawan. One that required a great deal of attention and help no less.
Frustrated by the lack of progress shown by the Padawan, he started delegating parts of her education to his most trusted lieutenant. Just as they shared the duty of defeating their foe, they started sharing the burden of bringing this Padawan along. Which turned out to be quite a hefty task. After a few days, she still had problems with her first assignment. She still kept asking the same questions, they were just phrased differently. Sometimes, she would ask questions which indicated that she really hadn’t understood the previous answers. His lieutenant told him about the questions she asked, and they turned out to be very similar to the ones she had already asked the Jedi Knight. He had answered them as well as he could, yet she continued asking the same questions to the Jedi Knight.
At this point, the Jedi Knight sought refuge in his iPod. It helped him seclude himself to some extent, not only so he could focus on his own assignments and thoughts, but also to encourage the Padawan to try thinking for herself a bit more before asking questions. The Padawan didn’t quite catch up on that. If she felt like asking a question, yet noticed that the Jedi Knight was trying to focus on his work she would come over to the desk of the Jedi Knight with an ever-impressing silence, and would knock her knuckles on his desk in rapid succession. The sound and mere thought of which still haunts and frightens the Jedi Knight to this day.
The Jedi Knight started keeping count of the questions she asked. There was one day where she asked 17 questions, almost half of them were duplicates of previous questions. This was no longer in the first week. This was week four. The Jedi Knight had all but lost hope that this Padawan would ever learn the ways of the Force. His lieutenant started complaining that he was also losing too much time on her, and that he was getting behind on his own tasks. So the Jedi Knight had to have a bit of a talk with the Padawan.
He explained to her that maybe learning the ways of the Force weren’t within her capabilities and that she might have to look into a different career path. Much to his delight, she agreed. She even seemed relieved in some way. The Jedi Knight told her that she was asking too many questions, and that she was incapable of comprehending the answers, no matter how clearly they were given to her. Again, she agreed. He also said that she should reduce the number of questions she asked, and that she should try to finish her remaining task as well as she could without slowing down the Jedi’s. Of course, the Jedi Knight knew that the task would most likely had to be redone later on by one of the Jedi’s.
The Jedi Knight felt better after the talk, but only a couple of hours later, the endless barrage of questions resumed. The Jedi Knight was starting to look forward to his upcoming vacation in the Caribbean more and more, thinking about how he would spend his days drinking Mojito’s while relaxing on the beach, listening to George Carlin’s “Free Floating Hostility” bit and enjoying the weather. He even started to lose his interest in the Force, and was getting seriously demotivated. He eventually met with Master Yoda to inform him that he was no longer willing to spend time trying to mentor this Padawan. Yoda also had a talk with the Padawan, essentially telling her the same things the Jedi Knight already told her. A few days later, the apprenticeship was stopped, and the Padawan went her own way.
The Jedi Knight was still demotivated, slightly burned out even (though there were other reasons for this). He eventually went on his vacation to the Caribbeans to regain his strength and came back ready to get back to where he belonged. Closely aligned with the Force, yet armed with the knowledge that he certainly wasn’t capable of teaching its ways to just about anyone.