Day 16: Learning New Things

To get back into the rhythm of writing, I plan to write one 8 Minute Memoir per day this month, picking up where I left off, as a sort of loose participation in NaNoWriMo. See Ann Dee Ellis' blog for more info about 8 Minute Memoirs.

I think I can say with some level of certainty that I have learned something new every day for most of my life. At first it was stuff like eating and speaking, but learning refines itself over time. Some days I do learn entirely new skills or ideas, but most days it's more like an adjustment of knowledge I already had.

Nothing has taught me more than being a teacher. Seeing the world through the eyes of junior high students gives me a sort of twisted, slightly optimistic, slightly horrible idea of what life is. More optimistic though. The students I spend time with every day ask questions I would never ever think to ask myself.

I do wish I learned more. I crave education. Every time I attend a training or class, I remember how great it is to have ideas thrown at me for hours at a time.

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes too and I learn all the time from it. Sometimes I learn things that I later have to unlearn.

The other day I learned that N*Sync member J.C. Chavez was actually J.C. Chasez, which blew my tiny mind.

Sometimes I wonder when the learning will end. Is there such a thing? My human mind feels so finite in its capacity and I honestly worry that it will get sick of learning and fight back one day. It will simply explode from overuse and I'll just die. I mean, I don't actually think that's what will happen, but I worry about it anyway.

I hope that I will always learn new things. I don't want to live in a world where everything is just known. That world sounds awfully boring to me. I love the way my head feels when I learn something that shifts my entire worldview and I feel more open and secure than I did before. Knowledge really is a very specific kind of power that I feel like I can wield against my enemies, like depression, unfriendly students, and time.

All I can really say is that learning matters to me, more so than I can possibly explain in a mere 8 minutes.