In The Classroom Called Life

When was the last time you considered yourself a student?

Most of us have gone through the usual route of getting ourselves an education. You go through primary, high school and then endeavor to complete higher studies to specialize in your favored field. Some of us pursue post graduate degrees or professional courses mainly to further reinforce skills to widen career opportunities.

But as we go through the motions of acquiring an education, do we realize that we spend the greater part of our lives mostly focused on merely cultivating technical capacity?

There is nothing wrong about striving to get ourselves a seat at the workplace, but what a pity if we don’t see the bigger point of learning, because truth be known, in the classroom called life, sometimes, we do tend to miss the larger scheme of things. Education has a deeper and more profound purpose than just to earn a living. It is that which will help you towards realizing yourself and your dreams – hopefully guiding you to your place in the world. For some of us who are more spiritual, education itself is a means to freedom – a liberation of the psyche and spirit.

You educate yourself, because you want to succeed, grow and truly live. And so we should transform our education to a deeper kind of learning, a learning which does not stop when schooling ends. We should continue our life’s education by learning new things, new skills, and keeping abreast with the fast changing world, not to be left behind by progress. We need to carry on pursuing our aspirations – may they be simple or lofty, because that is what makes the difference between merely living, and a driven purposeful life. We have to learn to be a student of life, for life, and continue to evolve because as long as we live, so should we grow.

SEE ALSO: Editors Note: Lessons from the School Called Life

Last year, two 90 year olds made it in the US headlines for going back to college and earning their degrees. Apart from their university requirements, the two ‘nonagenarians’ had to learn computer skills and get to grips with modern technology to cope with their studies. Helen Small who got a graduate degree in psychological sciences from the University of Texas, Dallas, became a role model encouraging the elderly to continue pursuing their lifelong aspirations. On the other hand, Clyde Wagnon from Idaho Falls, went back to school after losing his wife of 65 years and demonstrated that one can keep on moving forward and find renewed purpose in life. He said, “I do believe I can live 30, 40, 50 more years, if I keep on keeping on. So I need something to do that’s worthwhile. Whatever it takes to keep going, I’m going to keep going as long as I have the strength and will to do so,” he says.

It just goes to show that education has so much more to offer than just the probability of a regular paycheck, and that, indeed, it is never too late to continue learning, AND living.

Taas Noo, Filipino!

Lalaine Chu-Benitez