I took a class titled \u201cCommunication in Aging.\u201d For the most part, it was much like any other class where you learn the material from textbooks and PowerPoint slides. One particular day took a different approach. The professor organized a small panel of five individuals from the community that was in their 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s. While many different topics were discussed, the overarching theme was the importance of life-long learning. One woman spoke excitedly about trips she takes with different groups that have an educational component to them.<\/p>\n
All of these individuals were active in the community and have a variety of interests. All of this was attributed to their dedication to life-long learning.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t a new concept to me, however, it was not something I had ever taken into personal consideration. I was sitting there with the thought that I had one month left of school and that I would continue education at the School of Hard Knocks for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
But, why wouldn\u2019t someone want to be a life-long learner?<\/p>\n
Why be complacent with picking up bits of knowledge here and there when you can be active about it even after you\u2019ve graduated?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This can be done in a couple of ways.<\/p>\n
You can continue your education by taking classes at your local community college or park district, or you can take your own creative approach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At the start of the New Year, my resolution was to learn about a new thing every week (or to simply expand my knowledge on something that I already knew a little bit about.) While my dedication tapered off due to graded research taking precedence, I have picked up this resolution since graduating and have had a blast learning about new things.<\/p>\n
My list ranges from information about orca whales to Camino de Santiago, to mortuary science, to how to make a citizen\u2019s arrest. Yes, I am aware that this list is strange (I didn\u2019t even include the ones on the stranger side).<\/p>\n
But, I\u2019ve found that learning about these varied items has expanded my mind and has enhanced my small-talk skills. Getting to learn about something different each week keeps me educationally invigorated, and I hope that it helps as I go through my own process of communication in aging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While many may think education stops after graduation, there are ways to continue life-long learning that are endlessly rewarding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337355,"featured_media":19453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[1047,897,1193,1178,1234,896],"class_list":["post-8790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-college","tag-education","tag-life-long-learning","tag-oped","tag-real-estate-news","tag-university"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Leaders-talking-over-business-strategy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8790"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20105,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8790\/revisions\/20105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}