Learning to learn

When reading Wallace’s speech I kept thinking about a saying my Dad has made sure I’ll never forget. “Don’t take the easy way out.” To me this always meant do your work to the best of your ability and when things seem tough, deal with it. This saying to me related directly to Wallace’s address. It’s very EASY to let yourself live in autopilot. For a couple of reasons, one is its always harder to look at things with a positive perspective. The good in people are often buried behind a layer of “ugliness.” Wallace would agree that these pessimistic people who can’t see the good in life just can’t escape from “autopilot.” This outer layer is much easier to judge person by, depending on your thinking. This brings me to the second reason. In my experiences I have noticed that most people are focused on materialistic items. Not because they want to be but that’s how their life experiences trained them to be. Personally I was taught to be this way. As a child when I would ask my parents why I had to go to school I would always receive the same answer. “So you can get into a good college, than out of college get a good job and make a lot of money.” By telling me this, my parents were not trying to put me into a state of mindlessness. They were teaching me what them and most other people think is most important, success! Wallace says “If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life,…never feel you have enough.” A lot of very rich, very successful people aren’t happy with what they have. That is someone in autopilot, a person like that is the king of their universe and that’s all that matters. To me true success is being successful, and at the same time being totally fulfilled with what you have accomplished.

Wallace’s speech is telling us that our education isn’t solely about learning, but more about learning how to learn from every life experience.