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I'm a big proponent of education, but not as one of those people who sit in teachers' conferences and blow a lot of hot air about how education will save the world. No, I'm a flat out consumer of it. I have 11 degrees and 2 certificates and I'm not stopping. In fact, if things go well this Fall, I will pick up two more degrees and another skill certificate.
Why continue the mental abuse? Isn't school just a means to an end for a job? Am I doing a career change? Well both and none. Yes, I have been training for a career change. I'm at the end of one career and now realistically looking forward to doing something completely new (less than three hours out is not that far away anymore). And, I'll also be honest, I like learning new things.
Now, half a century old, most folks think I should be thinking about where I want to settle down, stuffing money in my socks and under my mattress for retirement, and getting used to relying on the evening news to tell me what's going on in the world. Well, if my name was Archie Bunker I suppose that's what I would do. Maybe I would even open a bar and listen to everyone come in every evening and depress me as well. But I'm not Archie, and there's no way in hell I would start a business a bar (I would drink all the beer!).
Instead, I like continuing to learn because it challenges me. First, as you age you build up a lot of assumptions about how the world works. From experience you build up a library of scenarios and categories in your head, and then all your following decisions are influenced or biased by that internal library. Going back to school periodically not only forces you to re-evaluate those assumptions, even if based on experience, but to also objectively justify keeping them any longer.
A few years ago I had a discussion with my father about a given topic. He immediately snapped in the middle of the talk and told me I was wrong. he knew it because he had seen it himself. I calmly asked him where and when. He mumbled something about in his past but couldn't give any details. Then I pulled out the actual material where I had researched my view, from very recent facts and statistics. Even with the information in front of him, he refused to accept that things had changed and my father's perspective was no longer valid. He had stopped learning. We don't communicate anymore for some other reasons, but I suspect he will go to his grave with a mind that already died years before. I don't care to spend my later years the same way.
I don't assume I'm any kind of expert. I've learned a whole lot about how much I don't know, and it's an amazingly big world out there. But I'm willing to keep trying. Sometimes it doesn't work. There are some topics I just can't get my head around. Fortunately, now, I'm not learning to get my first real job; I already have a career. Instead, I'm learning for the sake of it. And, if I can't comprehend something, I move like water and find another way or another topic. Other times, I just have to think about things longer, and it's quite satisfying to come back, try again, and accomplish a class or topic that stumped me years before.
Folks will ask how it's possible for me to do all this learning, I must be rich given the cost of higher learning. The fact is, it's not. However, you have to be willing to put aside the fancy schools and universities with big names. Instead, try community colleges. They are a bargain cost and, in most states, practically free if you apply for financial aid. You could be making six figures and still get approved for free tuition. Seriously. Just do it. The worst they can do is say no, and then you pay something like $150 a class for a semester. Most people can afford that.
And no, you don't need to stick with fuddy-duddy classes like philosophy. If it wasn't for ongoing learning, I never would have gotten into cryptocurrency, which in turn opened up whole world of NFTs for me as well. I'll keep learning, even if I have to settle for free online courses from sources like EdX or Coursera. The point is, challenge your brain everyday. You'll be amazed at what you pick up and, even more, what you do with new knowledge. Think I'm barking up a tree? Ask most success coaches how to be successful, and a lot of them will recommend reading at least one new book a week on a non-fiction topic. Truth.
Learning happens all the time, but is your brain alive or already dead?
