20/10/2020
Learn. Explore. Relearn. Re-explore.
In history class you learn what the books and teachers want you to know. In geography class you learn what the maps and teachers wants to show you. As a child, you don’t have much control over what you learn, how you learn, or even what your taught. As adults though, we have this great power, responsibility, and freedom to learn whatever we want...it is amazing. We now have the power to change the world. Change the bad we see in the world. Change ourselves. Create our own life. Form our own ideas and opinions. But why is it then do we choose to learn only what our eyes want us to see or what our ears want us to hear or what our heart wants us to feel? You have just spent the majority of your life learning, now it is time to explore with the knowledge we have.
You travel to England in hopes of finding the grandeur of London or eating fish & chips. You travel to France stand in awe of the Notre Dame Cathedral in the morning and then the Mona Lisa at night or to roam the vineyards while drinking wine and sampling cheese all day. You travel to Germany to experience the feelings of the Christmas markets, drink glühwein, or see a summer fest. Or for me, I traveled to China to experience the life in a major city on the border of Hong Kong and Macau all while teaching.
However, once you travel to these places, once you explore these places, you start to relearn. You learn that maybe what you were taught in school was wrong. Maybe what the maps said were wrong. Maybe life isn’t what you thought. In England you can find the grandeur of London, but nobody tells you about the smell of the bookstores in Oxford because that’s not what they are looking for. Nobody says how good a hot bacon sandwich and a glass of orange juice tastes after a cold and rainy morning of rugby. Nobody tells you about the feeling of falling in love with the Van Gogh pieces before you get to the Mona Lisa and then still favoring Van Gogh. Nobody says anything about the rosy-cheeked kids in Germany whose parents are letting them have their first sip of glühwein at a Christmas market or the sound of a few thousand people singing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at a summer fest. Lastly, nobody told me about the generosity of the Chinese, their hospitality, how hard working they are, or that (just like every country) they have some truly amazing people and innovations. Nobody told me about the sounds of the market streets, or the smell of the street food, or the taste of freshly roasted duck, or even that hot water, tea, and congee work miracles when you’re sick.
But, once we have relearned, through first hand experiences, what we were originally taught, it is time to re-explore. As Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So go back down that side street that had the guy doing shaved meat with fresh pita bread, go into that bookstore that smells like knowledge you never knew you didn’t have, go back and look at your favorite Van Gogh painting, and go back for one more round of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” or “Ein Prosit” with the friends you just met at a random fest table. But most importantly, remember that you don’t need to go to foreign lands to do this. Start in your own town if you want. Go to that new restaurant, go to that store you’ve always wanted to go to, or go to the next town over that you’ve always wanted to visit.
“I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
― Robert Frost
Now go and take the road less traveled by...go learn, go explore, go relearn, go re-explore. But, above all else, go and grow.
