learning and toot-tooting
Little kids reach an age where it seems like after every statement, there’s the dreaded question: Why? For me, this inquisitive nature didn’t disappear as I got older.
I was obsessed with taking things apart and putting them back together, researching the reasoning behind why things were done the way they were – because the answer was very, very seldom “just because,” or as my parents liked to state, “because I said so.”
I craved knowing everything. Jack of all trades, master of some, sure! I was a Merit kid, an honors kid, an AP kid, and an over-achiever. And I’m grateful I had educators in my life who encouraged me to ask why and to uncover the meanings and rationale for everything in life.
I was not the student to double-major, but I did double-minor in women’s studies and international studies, where I learned about sociopolitical and economic impacts to some of the most disenfranchised and under-represented populations. This past summer, I was able to complete my Master in Professional Studies in Community Development, where I learned leadership skills as well as elected communications and marketing classes.
I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but, you know….
Seriously, though, this isn’t me putting my resume out there. This is me saying I crave knowledge. I crave learning more.
My partner, Sam, and I will sit and watch documentaries on YouTube about music – how genres developed, the story of certain songs – or even arguable survival things like how to make a burger in the back of your car (this one’s for you, Mav).
The older I get the more I realize just how much I don’t know. But it’s invigorating, in a way, because it’s incredibly easy to learn something new every day.
Just last week, I was able to work with my student worker at UNA and show her variable data (more on that in a later blog). This allowed her to make pre-labeled envelopes for almost 700 people in less than 10 minutes. This isn’t something she was learning in class, and as someone who took only one graphic design class in my life, it wasn’t something I’d learned in a class either.
We learn by doing. We learn by listening. We learn by exploring.
Knowledge is a critical value to who I am. The knowledge I have, I want to share. And I want others to share with me, too, because while I would consider myself an expert, that doesn’t mean I know everything at the ripe old age of…somewhere below 30.
What about you? What do you want to share with the world? What do you want to know more about? What do you strive to learn every day?
