One Year Anniversary Of "Where Do I Begin?" Blog!!!

Lessons Learned

One Year Of Blogging

June 15, 2013 was the day that I finished my Master’s Degree, submitted the voluminous final project, and breathed the heavy but immensely satisfied sigh that accompanies completion of any outrageously arduous task that even you yourself on your most optimistic of days cannot fully believe you can do. Fastidiously poring over journal articles and combing through vast masses of obscure yet critically relevant research, I, at fifty-five, tried to catch up and then keep up with the young, exceedingly bright go-getter students in the graduate program who were my classmates. But they were helpful and kind and supportive and encouraging and patient, and I was deeply inspired just to run alongside them. Feverishly writing paper after paper after paper, day after day after day with a thesaurus, a dictionary, and spellcheck serving as my closest friends, I muddled through and made it, whereby marking off a bucket list item.  Finished. Done. The contented exhaustion that followed was quickly chased by a pinch of emptiness ushered in by the absence of constant looming, driving deadlines. Now what? After being suddenly tossed from the spin cycle, how does one regain footing? After daily ongoing wrestling matches with words and ideas and opinions and constant reflection and subsequent assertions all superimposed upon the already hectic and full schedule of ordinary life and living, it stopped. It’s awkward and uncomfortable when it stops.  One of my sons, detecting my unexpected frustration with this change, suggested that a way to keep ideas flowing, a way to keep challenging and stretching such as in pursuit of that Master’s Degree, was to write a blog. We talked about it. It sounded good. And now it has been a year of blogging. A year of sharing and learning. Learning can’t stop simply because the degree has been accomplished or the certification has been achieved or the test has been passed, for life is learning and to live is to grow, to reach, to aspire. We all have lessons to learn, that is certain, but we also all have lessons to teach and to share with others who will follow behind and do well with a bit of our wisdom and understanding. Undoubtedly, each and every day, we are all teachers, and we are all learners. This lesson-filled journey known as life constitutes the best of all continuing education for it calls us to remain connected and engaged and challenging one another to be better than we think we can be.