What's On Your Mind?

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Learning

Today's entry is written for a contest on a cool blog I found - Scribbit.blogspot.com. The contest is September's Write-Away. http://scribbit.blogspot.com/2007/09/septembers-write-away-contest.html

Learning has definitely been a life-long experience for me. Completing my Bachelor’s degree took approximately 15 years, as I would attend school for a semester, then drop out and get a second job to pay for another semester. I’ve always considered financing a college education an experience in itself. The Masters degree went much faster, one 2.5 years, still working full-time, but only 1 job. During this 17.5 years, I also raised a wonderful son and got married – both were definitely learning experiences!

My son was 11 years old when I got married, so up to that time, I worked where ever I could to make ends meet – bartending, waiting tables, typing school papers, receptionist, public intoxication observer, laborer in a cement block plant, credit services skip tracer, and an investigator. You can imagine what my resume looks like! Trust me, I’ve heard all about job hopping and how bad it looks, but I have learned more from the people (employees and customers) than I’ve ever learned in my long formal education. We can learn something from everyone we meet – from CEO to convict, singer to secretary, president to policeman. Everyone has had different experiences, or perspectives of those experiences and in order to fully appreciate learning you must open your mind. Learn something new every day – I certainly do.

3 comments:

Scribbit said...

I admire that you stuck with it and finished your education--though that's really an inaccurate phrase, I bet you're the kind of person who never is "finished" but will always keep learning.

Dawn said...

LOL - when I mentioned getting a Ph.D., I thought my husband would have "the big one!" Still, I'm sure he will get used to the idea when the time comes.

Ice Cream said...

Wow, with a resume like that I really wish you would blog more. I would love to hear all of your job experience and life experience stories!!!