Being a Life Learner

I never fully realized the difference between someone who lives their life to learn and someone who just exists.

There is a difference folks. A vast one.

For example, I just completely blanked on the exact definition of the word 'vast'. Normally, I would have just used a dumber word that I already know the meaning of, like large. Not today. Today, I looked it up, refreshed my memory, and utilized that term. Rock on.

For the past few days, I have been reminding myself to be continually curious about the world, and to learn for the fun of it. And guess what, learning magically became fun again! I now know the history of Tootsie Rolls, why people are late, what Lorde's song "Royals" is actually about, songs by Cage the Elephant, and the basics of knitting. It's fantastic.

While a lot of this information may seem useless, it really made me think. How many things do I not know? How many of those things will I never know, and how will that affect my life? Ignorance breeds intolerance and such. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Maybe not to this extent, but I would like to continue to keep an open (or at least as open as I can be) mind about life. Who knows what else is out there to learn?

Also, knitting is frustrating as all hell.

This is the World, That We Live in

After four months of being an RA, I am a tad bit burned out. I don't know about you, but I have the tendency to emotionally invest completely in everything that I love (such as this job), which can lead to faster mental and emotional exhaustion. Due to the fact that I am completely enamored with this job, and with life, I was not going to stay burned out. (Insert cheesy metaphor about re-lighting my candle and such here.)

So I looked for ways to reverse my burn out. Locking myself in my room didn't work, and neither did avoiding this issue (which is never an effective way to deal with your problems, but who doesn't try it anyway?).

The answer came after a presentation that I gave for my Young Adult Literature class. My group and I ran a class on my favorite book, 'Looking for Alaska'. We noticed that my older copy of the book had a candle on it, while the newer editions just had smoke.

Little difference, I just assumed that it was a stylistic choice. A girl in my class, Ashley, didn't. She looked up this book after our class, unprovoked, and found this and posted it to my Facebook wall:

FROM WIKIPEDIA: YOUR ANSWER!

"In August 2012 blog, Green revealed details regarding the cover design of Looking for Alaska. Green acknowledged the fact that the supposedly extinguished candle did lead to an "improbable amount of smoke," and thus revealed that the initial cover design did not feature the candle. Green then revealed that certain book chains were uncomfortable about displaying or selling the book because they did not want to encourage what looked like cigarette smoke - which Green revealed was the actual 'cause' of the smoke. Thus, book chains added the candle beneath the smoke so that they weren't promoting smoking.

In John Green's box set, released on October 25, 2012, the candle element of the cover of Looking for Alaska has been removed, and features the original cover design. Further paperback releases of the book also have the candle removed."

After reading that, I realized that I have been too comfortable with the world in which we live, assuming things and not looking for answers. So, as of this moment, I am vowing to myself to be more inquisitive, of the people around me and the things that I take for granted. The results of that will be in posts to come.

"Stay thirsty, my friends"

Why?

     Questions. Questions are crazy things. From a young age, I and many of the people around me have been told some terrible things about questions. That's a stupid question. Stop asking questions. That's not worth answering.

No. No. No.

     Everyone should feel comfortable asking questions. Why is the sky blue? How did you do that? Who was that guy on the television wearing that funky hat? Should I check out this totally awesome blog? (Yes, obviously to the last question.) As a tour guide, I make sure to emphasize that there is no such thing as stupid question, there are only stupid people who don't ask questions (except I phrase it more professionally in order to not lose my job).

    In classes, people are often afraid to ask questions. I am often afraid to ask questions, and I am one shameless individual. A lot of times though, other scared people have the same question, or, at very least, you don't have to sit there with a confused look on your face.

Intelligent people are intelligent because they ask questions and find answers.

Plus, it keeps us from making assumptions with negative consequences.

Here are my questions for the day

Why does it have to keep snowing?

Is being friends with my neighbor/now ex-boyfriend (we broke up last week) a terrible idea?

Why is playing baseball with a light saber and a smiley face ball in my dorm room so much fun?

  Where do people go after they die?

When will Fall Out Boy come back together (their breakup was one of the saddest musical days of my life)? LOL JK THEY ARE BACK TOGETHER.

 When will Brand New, The Killers, and Julian Perretta tour near me?

There are so many amazing quotes, excuse the multitude.

So question yourself. Question your authorities. Question your friends. Question your enemies. Question me. Question life. The answers are everywhere. Here's one to start you off.