My blogging beginnings

When I set up this blog I was in the middle of my university degree, frustrated by the testing and grading system. I realized that the system's way of monitoring educational results was different from my own, and that because of it I was putting lots of information into my short term memory at the expense of long term memory in order to recieve top marks. While working very hard to get top marks, I didn't have enough time or energy to do what I had actually gone to university to accomplish: learn something. But not just something! I love learning about history, about the world and the peoples in it. About their ways of thinking and conceptualizing life, love, and happiness. I love it because as I learn about other peoples I understand myself, those around me and my world more fully.I am passionate about understanding.

As I came to the realization that my approach to university WAS giving me great grades but WASN'T giving me the usable knowledge I was hoping for, I decided, among other things, to set up this blog as a way to keep my learning a working reality rather than a test score soon forgotten.

Then there were no posts for two years.

That sort of makes me chuckle. Because really, in those two years, I learned (and retained) more than the previous three university years! Life offered a chance to go out and experience learning about the world and its peoples in reality rather than through books. I learned a new language, I fought and struggled to grasp a working understanding of new cultures and coincidently, the people I was living and working with daily.

So when I returned to university to finish my degree, I headed back with this new outlook on learning well-rooted inside of me. Quite frankly it changed the whole experience of classrooms and lectures, studying and essay-writing. This time I was in it for what I could get out of it personally, and it became enjoyable! Sure, it was still incredably demanding, but now it was also thought-provoking and that is something I very much enjoy: and good ponder.

So why have I suddenly posted on a 2-year old blog that was doing just fine as a blank sheet of paper? Well a couple days ago I found one of those truly thought-provoking questions, which I pondered, and then put some of my thoughts into a writen response; an experience which I really enjoyed! So I thought, why not try again?