Tag Archives: learning

Staying curious vs making resolutions

Happy New Year! I hope you and your family had a good and relaxing holiday season.

My family wasn’t big on making new year resolutions, but my mother did cultivate habits when it came to expanding her knowledge. For years, she would open a dictionary each day and read a word and its definition. When I was younger, I thought it was a bit of a quirky but admirable habit. Now, I work in a field where I monitor how popular content is in online search and I was a bit surprised to find that a consistent top performer is “word of the day.” If Mom was still around, she wouldn’t need to lug a heavy dictionary from the shelf, she could just click an app on her phone.

While I may not be a word of the day follower, I did inherit my mother’s curiosity streak. I’m constantly searching for insights and educating myself on a wide range of topics. Some people become experts in particular niches but I tend to gravitate towards learning a little about a wide variety of topics, and then dedicating more time to a few areas for a deep dive. I can’t imagine not continuing to learn throughout my life; I can honestly say I’ve learned more by just living than I ever did in school. Not that a educational foundation isn’t important, it’s more about continuing to grow and evolve your knowledge base over time.

Do you make resolutions for the new year?

Image generated by Google Gemini.

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Relearning your life

It’s interesting the simple things we take for granted, until sickness or old age strikes. I was talking to Mom today and she said in rehab tomorrow she’s going to learn how to get dressed on her own again. “Really exciting, I know,” Mom joked. (She hasn’t lost her sense of humor yet.) It made me think about how most of us go through our daily routines without even stopping to think about the steps involved. Getting dressed? Most of us master that as small children. Now Mom is learning how to do it all over again. It must be so frustrating on a certain level.

Of course, dementia didn’t give Dad a chance to learn new or old things. The disease robbed him of his mind, bit by bit.

And I’m having to adapt to a new way of living too. I’m not a fan of change, but this isn’t about me. Still, it’s amazing how one illness can change the life of a family forever.

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