Learning is an Antidote to Apathy

A couple months before my sabbatical, I started signing up for all kinds of creative classes that I had always wanted to take but never had the time to. In person or virtual, I just wanted to be back in that environment of exploring new things with other curious people. I was a bit overly ambitious and forgot how much time it takes not only to attend classes, but to experiment and do the assignments well. I admit to being overly ambitious, and not being able to devote as much to every class. But I did realize something about myself after awhile: I not only like learning, I feel more engaged in life when I’m studying something new, diving deeply into a subject.

I studied some topics via formal course over multiple months, like illustration and surface pattern design. But I also attended live lecture series on architecture at Cranbrook Museum of Art, the Detroit Historical Society, and public libraries. Sites like Creative Live, Skillshare, and LinkedIn gave me really fast, self-paced ways to learn new skills. I found YouTube videos to help overcome issues in a pinch when I was wrestling with some new technique in Photoshop and Illustrator.

For the past 10 weeks, I’ve been taking a Foundations of Gardening course. With weekly readings, classes and tests, its been a lot more work than I expected. I felt like I was back in college in a lot of ways. Over the past three weeks or so, I got overwhelmed and was ready to finish this up and take a good long break. Tonight was the last live class, and now I just have the final exam to take.

Funny thing is, I don’t really want that good long break anymore. It’s been awhile since I took a cooking class — maybe Korean or Thai is next up!