I am Human...

This last year has been very different than most. As most of you know, I decided to go back to school after sitting out amlost ten years. I really am not sure why I have made it such a big ordeal to go back. I have met so many people that never quit learning in some sort. I guess that is what life is all about, continuing education. Define education? It is not something that comes from an institution made of bricks or blocks, that at the end of a period of time is either pass or fail. Education is the experience in its entirety. From the begging to the end. What page were you on when it all started and where are you now that a specific lesson is, pursay, done. This relates not only to my past year at school. This pertains to my life in the last year or two that I have begun to examine.

I have learned, and probably need not say this, that a classroom or lesson can be learned where ever you may seek to find one. It can be in a building of higher learning, it can be in a park with kids running around enjoying the sun, it can be in a seat almost on the last row watching a children's orchestra concert. Any lesson learned is worth learning. A mistake is a set of events that failed to have the outcome that you may not have wanted and learned nothing from. Like kicking your foot against a brick wall repeatedly, wondering why you toes hurt. Sometimes you just have to make it simple. K.I.S.S....keep it simple stupid!!!

I have learned many lessons in the last 270+ days (academically speaking). Some of them I wish I would have had my priorities set differently so I would have acquired more from them, some of them I wish I would have put forth more effort towards a better 'grade'. But then agian, what is a grade? This goes back to my post about it all being written in stone when it is all over. Who is the one that will give the final grade? I believe we all have so many 'graders' in our lives. We all have so many instructors as well. Sometimes though, we fail to realize how many students we are teaching and what exactly it is that we are teaching them!!

I have met people that have it all figured out, I have met people that don't have a clue, I have met people that are searching for it, and some that have had it and lost it. But then again, who am I? Who are we? Should we not examine ourselves before we begin to examine others? Should we not focus on examining others and focus on examing ourselves and what we are teaching. Do we teach to learn, or learn to teach? I have realized that the material I learned in class, I comprehended the best when I taught it to someone.

I am truly thankful for the experiences I have had in my lifetime. Some of them were not what I would say good, but the problem lies with my perspective of the situation. I have learned that if you change your perspective, the mistake becomes a lesson.

I want the remainder of my life to be a lesson everyday. I am trying to challange myself to make sure I learn something new everyday. This does not require new information all of the time. I believe that it simply means reevaluating from a different agle sometimes. If you look at a problem as being in the center of a circle, you have many different angles from which you can view it. For simplicity sake, we'll say 360 (360 degress in a circle) different angles. Now, put that same problem inside of a sphere. You take those 360 different veiws, and put them on an infinite number of planes in that spherefrom which you can view that problem.

So basically it all boils down to how you view the problem. Example, take an oreo and pull it apart. Hypothetically, we'll say all of the stuffing stays with one of the cookie sides. Now you take the half that has one cookie and all of the cream stuffing. Look at it directly from the cookie side. What do you see? Say, 99% cookie 1% sutffing? You see the words Oreo and then the little holes that expose the creamy stuffing right? Ok, now flip it over. What do you see? Say 80% stuffing and then around the outside you would see a little bit of the cookie right? Ok, now look at it from the side. What do you see? You see almost 50% cookie and 50% stuffing right? But in the end, you still have the same facts placed infront of you with the same material in hand. All we have to do is change the way that we look at something and the answer may be right there, right under our noses. So here is my 'take home message' for this post...... Sometimes all you need to do to figure out a problem is share a bag of Oreo's with a good friend. It's just that simple! KISS

Now that summer is here everybody has been asking me, "what are you going to do this summer now that school is out?" My answer, "I'm not sure", to be honest. I don't really need to have the answer right now as long as I have a direction I want to head and try not to vear too far away from that path that I think may lead me in the direction I want to go. I have no idea what is in store for me from this moment on in my life. Another lesson learnd, "you may not need to know which way to turn sometimes, the main thing is that you take a step in good faith." Sometimes that step may turn into a leap, you may never know!!!

I wish that you all have a wonderful week and when you travel, either near or far, be safe in your journeys and may be peace be with you every step of the way!!

God bless!