Raise your hand....

I've been a learner all my life. Yes, dub me the goody-two-shoes of the class. I'm pretty sure I will have blood circulation problems because of how many times I raised my hand to provide the answers to questions. For the longest time I focused on completing classes and getting the grade. I think going straight through college and into grad school does that to a person. I didn't really get the "real world" check until I started my professional job. Suddenly, the time I had spent studying before was free. Free and unstructured. Hmmmm....what to do?

Well, I hate to say it, I stopped reading. It was an act of defiance on my part. I'd spent so much of my time reading in grad school that I didn't want to read another word. I watched T.V. I know, I know, such a time-suck. I would rent stacks of movies, and burn through half of them in a day. Honestly, I can't remember the storylines. I think I even gave myself headaches with how much time I spent in front of the screen.

And you know what happened? I got bored. Mind-numbingly bored. Bored to tears, literally. So, without realizing it, I did what any natural learner did, I figured out something to break the boredom. I learned how to knit. Why? Because it kept my hands busy while watching all those movies. Then I learned how to crochet. And spin. And then, bored with cereal and toast for every meal, I learned how to cook.

My point? Life-long learners are never bored. I find it fascinating when I hear someone say "I'm bored." I cannot imagine being bored. I'm to the point now that I have so many hobbies and things that I want to learn that I can hardly find time to do it all! I think that is my greatest strength in life-long learning, I am able, and more than willing, to take responsiblity of my learning. Learning is not stuck in the classroom, it is in the everyday scenario. For example, my car is making a funny noise. Yes, maybe I'm too cheap to take it to a mechanic, but I know that I don't want to get fleeced by the mechanic, so I learn as much as I can before I take it in.

But, my many, many interests result in my greatest weakness with life-long learning. I am a horrible, I repeat horrible, goal-setter. I dabble, I dibble, and I don't become really good at anything. I have a dress half-sewn, a sweater that only needs a neckband to be complete, a painting partially finished, and at least six books beside my bed that I am part-way into. I have snowshoes, cross-country skis, alpine skis, a mountain bike, yoga mat, cookbooks, spinning wheel, sewing machine, art supplies, nikon camera...the list could go on and on. All of these represent different things that I am in the middle of learning.

So here I am. I am taking the bull by the horns. Here is an honest-to-goodness goal. I will complete the Web 2.0 by May 1st. Okay, that was the deadline given to me...but we all have to start somewhere, right?