Never Stop Learning
A while back, I came across a tweet from one of my high school science teachers about a conversation he had with a student. The student asked him when the learning stops. His response? When one dies. Presumably, the student asked that question in the context of the school year. However, the teacher answered that in the context of life.
When I was in school, I could identify with that student. Heck, I still can -- finishing up college this time of year was always nice. The school year went until mid-June, but all of the standardized testing (in the form of SOLs and AP Exams) was conducted in May. Once those were over, I was ready to call it a year and start summer. After all, since testing was done, didn't that mean learning was also done? Well, not exactly.
Learning, unlike testing, isn't confined to a few weeks in May. And in reality, learning isn't confined to a school or a school year, either. While schools are a place where students go with the intent of learning, it's not the only place learning occurs -- far from it. There's a lot of learning we do in our lives that never even takes place in a classroom, like how to walk, talk, ride a bike, or even pay taxes. Learning doesn't stop after testing, on the last day of school, or at graduation. As one teacher bluntly put it, the learning doesn't stop until we die. In the meantime, we're always learning.
Given that there's the cliche phrase "you learn something new everyday", it probably shouldn't come as a shock that learning never stops. However, I don't think I fully understood that phrase -- and what that teacher said -- until after I got out of college. In the past year and few months since I've been in Houston, I've learned a lot - about Houston, about life (aka "adulting"), about myself, about God. Houston's got a lot to offer - great food, great people, great experiences, and sometimes great weather (well, from the late fall - early spring).
When I first moved here, in those really early days, everything was so new and a bit overwhelming - finding a place to stay, finding things to do, making friends, etc. There were all of these smaller things I now had that I didn't have to think about before - like paying bills, budgeting, saving for retirement, paying student loans, etc. You know, the stuff that people these days refer to as "adulting". And the thing is, I've learned that those things don't have to be frightening or overwhelming. I learned that I can do all of these things. Transitioning from school to work/living on one's own is one of those things that I don't know if anyone is ever fully prepared and ready for -- it's something one grows into. I've learned that life is less about what happens and more about how we react to it, something that I am still working on handling.
Above all else, I think most of the learning that I've had in Houston has come from the people here. There's a lot that we can learn from one another. We truly can learn anything from anyone. It doesn't have to be limited to our circle of friends or people that we like. We can learn a lot from people completely different from us, like how we view life, how we treat others, or how we should handle dilemmas, relationships, etc. There's also the fact that the more you learn about others, the more you learn why they are the way that they are. We really can learn a lot from others. How we treat people matters. Saying "Good Morning" or "Good Night", asking how one's day is going, or a little sticky note go a long way. That's something else I'm still working on.
Lastly, I've found myself learning a lot about God. I've learned that in His Kingdom, there are no outsiders. For someone who's always been able to blend in without truly feeling like I fit in or belong, that's been huge for me. It's also meant learning that there are going to be good times and there are going to be bad times. Through it all though, God is in control. Granted, that doesn't mean we should sit idle. We can still be proactive and how we view the good or bad times is more important that if the times are good or bad. And I've learned the important surrounding myself with friends that are chasing after Him. They say you're the composite of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so spend time with God - and find a good group of people!
At the end of college, when graduation was just days away, I had an "exit interview" with the two professors of my major. At the end of that, when it came time to shake hands and say goodbye, it dawned on me how close graduation and the end of college were. I said to them that I felt like I still had so much more to learn. One of my professor's responded by saying that he, too, had a lot more to learn - that we all do. Although that was only a year and a half ago, that reply has always stuck with me. Here was one of my professors, who's seen and experienced a lot, saying that he still had a lot to learn. The learning never does stop, no matter where we are in our lives. Every chapter in our lives provides new lessons and experiences to learn from. And I wouldn't want it any other way. To quote another one of my high school science teachers, "Yay, learning!"
When I was in school, I could identify with that student. Heck, I still can -- finishing up college this time of year was always nice. The school year went until mid-June, but all of the standardized testing (in the form of SOLs and AP Exams) was conducted in May. Once those were over, I was ready to call it a year and start summer. After all, since testing was done, didn't that mean learning was also done? Well, not exactly.
Learning, unlike testing, isn't confined to a few weeks in May. And in reality, learning isn't confined to a school or a school year, either. While schools are a place where students go with the intent of learning, it's not the only place learning occurs -- far from it. There's a lot of learning we do in our lives that never even takes place in a classroom, like how to walk, talk, ride a bike, or even pay taxes. Learning doesn't stop after testing, on the last day of school, or at graduation. As one teacher bluntly put it, the learning doesn't stop until we die. In the meantime, we're always learning.
Given that there's the cliche phrase "you learn something new everyday", it probably shouldn't come as a shock that learning never stops. However, I don't think I fully understood that phrase -- and what that teacher said -- until after I got out of college. In the past year and few months since I've been in Houston, I've learned a lot - about Houston, about life (aka "adulting"), about myself, about God. Houston's got a lot to offer - great food, great people, great experiences, and sometimes great weather (well, from the late fall - early spring).
When I first moved here, in those really early days, everything was so new and a bit overwhelming - finding a place to stay, finding things to do, making friends, etc. There were all of these smaller things I now had that I didn't have to think about before - like paying bills, budgeting, saving for retirement, paying student loans, etc. You know, the stuff that people these days refer to as "adulting". And the thing is, I've learned that those things don't have to be frightening or overwhelming. I learned that I can do all of these things. Transitioning from school to work/living on one's own is one of those things that I don't know if anyone is ever fully prepared and ready for -- it's something one grows into. I've learned that life is less about what happens and more about how we react to it, something that I am still working on handling.
Above all else, I think most of the learning that I've had in Houston has come from the people here. There's a lot that we can learn from one another. We truly can learn anything from anyone. It doesn't have to be limited to our circle of friends or people that we like. We can learn a lot from people completely different from us, like how we view life, how we treat others, or how we should handle dilemmas, relationships, etc. There's also the fact that the more you learn about others, the more you learn why they are the way that they are. We really can learn a lot from others. How we treat people matters. Saying "Good Morning" or "Good Night", asking how one's day is going, or a little sticky note go a long way. That's something else I'm still working on.
Lastly, I've found myself learning a lot about God. I've learned that in His Kingdom, there are no outsiders. For someone who's always been able to blend in without truly feeling like I fit in or belong, that's been huge for me. It's also meant learning that there are going to be good times and there are going to be bad times. Through it all though, God is in control. Granted, that doesn't mean we should sit idle. We can still be proactive and how we view the good or bad times is more important that if the times are good or bad. And I've learned the important surrounding myself with friends that are chasing after Him. They say you're the composite of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so spend time with God - and find a good group of people!
At the end of college, when graduation was just days away, I had an "exit interview" with the two professors of my major. At the end of that, when it came time to shake hands and say goodbye, it dawned on me how close graduation and the end of college were. I said to them that I felt like I still had so much more to learn. One of my professor's responded by saying that he, too, had a lot more to learn - that we all do. Although that was only a year and a half ago, that reply has always stuck with me. Here was one of my professors, who's seen and experienced a lot, saying that he still had a lot to learn. The learning never does stop, no matter where we are in our lives. Every chapter in our lives provides new lessons and experiences to learn from. And I wouldn't want it any other way. To quote another one of my high school science teachers, "Yay, learning!"
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