A Somewhat Obvious Epiphany

Growing up I wanted to be a million different things, and as an adult that hasn’t changed as much as I’d like. I want to believe it’s because I like too many things. The only subject I would say I dislike is math, and once I caught back up, I didn’t dislike it nearly as much (I had an idiopathic stomach condition that started around middle school and continued on into my first year of college which caused me to miss a lot of school, making math very difficult). History is fun because you learn about all these crazy things that went wrong and yet we’re somehow still here. Biology is fun because I get to learn how people work, and that’s unbelievably cool, and there’s always something more to discover. English is fun because reading and writing are how we communicate with the world and books and journals are how others communicate with us. Music was fun because of the people. All these wonderful things, how was I supposed to pick just one to spend my life learning about? The thing is, that question is wrong, only I didn’t realize it until I got here. I don’t know how I got the idea that I can only learn about one thing, or maybe two, but there’s no reason to limit myself in that way. Everything we do requires different parts of the various things we’ve learned. Art and biology and math and history and every language I’ve ever tried to learn is useful. Learning about pottery or history is useful, just like how learning statistics (albeit in a different way) is useful and I don’t have to choose. Maybe this seems obvious to other people, but it never has been for me. The idea that I don’t have to limit my learning to just biology, art, or specifically related things is amazing to me. So that’s the biggest thing I think I’m taking away from this experience. I don’t have to limit myself when it comes to learning, and all the knowledge that I have can be harnessed in some way, even the things I never considered useful. Even pine needle basketry (which btw do not get into unless you’re willing to spend HOURS making a teeny tiny basket. It’s cute but it’s time consuming).