Fall Learning

I don't know if fall and learning are just forever locked together in my brain from years of being in school, but there's something about the colder days and longer nights that make me want to curl up in a comfy armchair and read all I can about days gone by.

In the winter, there's the craziness of the holidays and then the massive amounts of snow that usually come our way. It slows us all down, and for me, personally, zaps my energy, especially as the temperature gets lower and the wood stove burns warmer. I just want to eat all the bad things and sleep until the sun is at least out, which ain't gonna happen when sunrise is 7:13 and the bus comes at 7:45.

In the spring, come the first breeze that actually delights the senses and doesn't send me burrowing into the nearest dwelling, I find myself venturing, willingly, outdoors. There's no time for academia. Spring has sprung! The earth is pungent with heavenly smells- daffodils, lilacs, lily of the valley. I stay outside as much as I can because it feels like I've been freed from the prison of winter.

In the summer, there's definitely no time for studying. It's time to explore! I want to do all I can in the one time of the year that the weather rarely interferes, except the occasional rainy day. I want to be outside even more than I did in the spring, and the longer days allow for it. If I'm going to be learning anything history-related, I want to do it on foot- hikes, monuments, the like.

And now here we are, in autumn. My friend and I attended a history lecture a few weeks ago on a cool but sunny day, and I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. This is me. I'm a proud, self-proclaimed history geek! I am happy that I can further my education by attending lectures and visiting museums so close to me. I still am in awe of how many opportunities are right in my own backyard, if I look for them.

If I could go back in time, to my newly-college-graduated self, I would say: "Don't worry about not getting your Masters Degree. It's okay that you don't know the exact career you want right now. Your English degree will serve you well in any job you get down the line. Sometimes it takes a little while to find where your true passion lies."

I'm so glad I've found it. Now, you'll have to excuse me. I have the house to myself and a book told from the perspective of a daughter of a doctor in the late 1800s. It's calling my name.