On Learning

I'm working on my Promotion notebook. For those of you who don't work in the community college system, this promotion notebook is a compilation of all of my work over the past three years that shows the people at the system level that I have truly been doing what I've said I've been doing. I think I work hard at my job. I truly love what I do and pride myself on getting the job done. My job description includes my actual teaching assignments, advising, internal service, external service, leadership, and professional development. All this work has made me think a lot about learning.

Part of my teaching philosophy is that we can all learn. I also believe it is important to learn something new every day. Since I have started blogging every day, and taking pictures every day, and thinking of things I'm grateful for every day, I really am looking at life differently. And I'm happy to say that on most days, I do learn something. It may be something totally useless, or it may be life-changing, but it's something. I believe that this is important.

Our universe is not stagnant. The world in which we live is ever-changing, and in order to adapt, we must learn new things. There are so many things that I want to learn about, but not nearly enough time. That's why I've started a bucket list. I want to learn Spanish. I want to learn to play the piano. I want to learn to crochet. I want to learn about other countries. I want to learn my family history (thanks, Mom, for a headstart) and where my husband came from. I want to learn about the Bible. I want to learn in my job, new ways of doing things, new ways of approaching students and patients. I want to learn to appreciate life as it is.

We learn from books. We learn from the Internet. We learn from experience. What I need to figure out how to do better is to learn from others, from their life experiences. Watching an elderly couple walk hand in hand in the store can teach me about acceptance and perserverance in hard times. Watching someone grieve because of illness or death can teach me compassion and empathy. Watching the flowers bud in spring can teach me patience. There are life lessons everywhere- we just have to open our eyes.