Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I'm done with finals!!!! My summer break starts now! Wow. Now I can have the weekend to celebrate.....before I start my online class on Monday..... :)

Here's to summer time!!!

:D

1 comment:

  1. SLK ....

    What a wonderful feeling you must have for doing so well this semester. Take a loooooong deep breath and enjoy the weekend. Then, back to the on-line books next week. Woe is me! Is there never an end to studying and learning?

    Well .... think about this.

    Your grandfather is a GREAT friend of mine and I know him well ... for his entire 80 years, if you can believe that!

    It might surprise you that he spends more time every day studying (and learning) than you do. EVERY DAY. Why is that, do you suppose?

    When he was about your age, he couldn't wait to finish college and get started making his own life. Sure, there was still a whole lot he didn't know about things ... life ... work ... people ... making money ... building a family and on and on and on ... so he HAD no choice but to learn how to do these things. It was called, "on-the-job training" in those days. He (like everyone else) had no choice.

    It was either learn what you needed or you couldn't progress. These times, like your (our?) time in school were the same kind of "must-learn" ... OR ELSE ... environments. An atmosphere quite often known as that of a pressure cooker (which I never see anymore, incidentally). Well ... leran we did, and learn you will also ....

    However, one day, the pressure lessens and the road ahead has a slope that is more gentle and learning changes - not abruptly, but gradually, and each of us finds a new learning experience. Not where one HAS to learn skills and methods of survival, but one where learning itself is the destiny ... not the topic to be learned.

    Unfortunately, I was a rather poor student using today's stamdards of measurement, but I survived by forcing myself to study and to learn ... but I was a slow learner and studying came VERY hard. There was no spare time for me to study things I wanted to study ... only the things I HAD to study. I was an average (at best) student.

    NOW ... My spare time ... and I have a lot of it ... is spent studying. I WANT TO STUDY. There is so much I wish to know about ... not because they will provide any financial return, but simply to satisfy my curiosity. I even have a list of topics on which I gather information any place I happen to run across inputs. Never before, have I experienced such personal enjoyment as I have these past few years in my insatiable search for knowledge ...

    So, now you are through with another phase of your MUST LEARN education ... Take a look back at the MUST LEARN phases you have so wonderfully completed so far: Baby; Toddler; Kindergarden; Grade School; Intermediate School; High School; Community College ...

    Then take a look at the MUST LEARN education phases that you will meet in your future: Getting a job; Undergraduate bachelors degree; Masters degree; Living on your own; Getting married; Raising your family; Protecting your family; Providing for your family; Your empty nest; Retirement; Learning how to study for relaxation ....

    Hey! That's where I am .... and when my journwy is completed, another full circle of life will also have been completed. But ... I will have had so much pleasure being able to study what I WANTED to study.

    As Browning said ... Hang in there, "The best is yet to be".

    TJC

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