The World I Know

I guess I never understood the whole fuss over education and scholarship. To me, if you want to learn something in life, you read a book, watch a video, or read an article about it. If you have an interest in something, then you take the time and effort to figure it out. I'm not saying that forced education is necessarily a bad thing, but there comes a point where it no longer serves us any good. Do I remember a single thing I learned in my mathematics class freshman year? Nope. Do I even remotely care about the things I learned in my English classes? Not really. Some may say I'm just closed minded and not open to learning new things. Some may argue that you need all of these new experiences to broaden your horizons and open your mind. Fair enough, but you'd be wrong.

There is so much more to learning than fulfilling some other persons ideas of what you should know. If you will never use or apply the things you learn in school in real life, you're wasting your time. Learning new things is one of my favorite pass times. I feel that learning new things makes life easier, and more enjoyable. I'm constantly learning new things and exploring new ideas. I can go onto wikipedia for hours, simply clicking on links and reading about things that I care about, that I find useful, or that I find interesting. I can watch TED videos and education documentaries all day long. I can read articles about the latest technology and news until my head hurts. I love learning new things. Recently I've been reading about "memory styles". I find it fascinating how different people think in completely different ways. How is it that nearly everyone I know can repeat the lyrics of a song, yet I can't? Why can I recall in almost exact detail how to drive somewhere while others have absolutely no idea? Understanding the way people think can help us to understand the way people ultimately act and behave.

I have an odd memory: I don't necessarily remember details, just general situations. For example, if someone was to ask me about a movie I had seen just two hours before, I would probably do a terrible job. I might explain a general plot line, such as "there was a guy, who had a daughter, ans she was kidnapped, and he had to go and get her back and he killed a lot of people." There's a 90% chance won't remember the main characters name, and there is nearly a 100% chance I won't remember any of the good lines from the movie. In my mind I remember the images of the movie, the colors of each frame as it flashed on the screen, the art and style, the music and sounds. A lot of other people would be able to tell you the names of each character, how everything went down, and rehearse back some kind of funny joke that was in the movie. Not me.

I also have an odd memory in that sounds play a huge roll in it. When I hear a sound it can remind me of past events much in the way that peoples sense of smell does. When I hear a plane or helicopter I'm nearly instantly reminded of my childhood on the Air Force Academy. When I hear the wind howl against the house I think of my childhood sitting inside watching the lightning storms. Sound can do a lot for my memory. I think I have a lot more to say about the way I think, and the way others think, but I have no way of putting it into words. I wish for just one second I could switch minds with someone and experience the way they think. It could be a very enlightening experience.

Anyways, I got super side tracked, and I'm not really sure where I was going with this post. I guess I saw that everyone else was posting stuff, and that maybe I should too. I guess what I was getting at is that you should learn because you want to learn. Don't ever stop being curious. Never be afraid to explore the things you don't understand.