Never Stop Learning
For some of you it’s the first time in the last 18 years that you aren’t headed “Back to School”. It can feel a little uncertain and unknown to break routine and habit in this way. A milestone that’s been on the calendar for as long as you can remember. A fresh start, a new level, a staircase up ahead with a finite number of stairs. And suddenly there are no books to buy, no classes to sign up for and it is unclear how many stairs lay before you or where the staircase even goes next. The distinct boundary between the seasons will now begin to slip away for the first time, and soon words like “semester” and “break” will too, known markers in time.
Your formal education may have ended but the learning certainly doesn’t stop, as long as you are paying attention. At the age of 21 while living in a new city and just a few months into my first job after college, I started writing down one thing I learned every day. I discovered that something happens to you every day that you can take into the next one and that one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves is attention and awareness to the things happening to us and for us. You can just let things happen to you or you can make your days more productive and more useful by looking for the lesson.
You might not be taking a “First Day” photo again anytime soon, at least not sincerely, but that doesn’t mean the firsts have stopped and don’t let the learning stop either.
Here are a handful of my favorite lessons from my very first journal and the beginning of my journaling practice. My first season of “firsts” if you will, from way back when in 2010.
Be good to your body and it will return the favor.
Never stop exploring and developing a passion outside of your work.
Take comfort in new friends that were once mere acquaintances.
You can select your thoughts the same way you select your clothes.
Do not drink well liquor at bars, it is not worth it.
Never settle for working with people who don’t make you think and make you happy.
A hard place can still be a good place to be in.
When you leave on time, relish the sunlight.
Be confident, even in pretending. That’s half of it after all.
The past is practice.