Just a glimpse.....

I am just a little sad that I haven't blogged a little more about all of the interesting things that I learn in school.  I am sorry that I have been keeping some of the seriously great bits of information from you all!  I have really learned some great stuff, I mean really great stuff.  I have a really tough semester ahead of me, I won't lie, but I have decided that I am going to get through it some way. So, I am going to look for the good amidst all the chaos.  That being said I am going to share what has been my favorite part of the semester so far (lucky you!).  I am taking writing 2010  this semester (and I think you all should know that I am the OLDEST person in my class, and I would be surprised if my teacher is more than 2 years older than me, in fact I may just be older than him).  My first assignment is to write a rhetorical analysis on the 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Address by David Foster Wallace.  You can find it here, read it!  I found it to be inspiring and a source of inspiration for every person.  I love it when a teacher assigns reading that I can really get into and appreciate and relate to it on a personal level.  THAT my friends is the BEST part of being a full time seeker of knowledge.  I want to share just a few parts that really struck me and spoke to me:

 "learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.  it means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.  Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed."

and this one is really good:  "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.  That is real freedom.  That is being educated, and understanding how to think.  The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing."

I LOVED THIS LAST QUOTE!  I felt like it spoke to the very core of what has really given my life meaning.  I know who has taught me the essence of this kind of freedom.......

Have you learned this lesson yet?  Who gave you the gift of experiencing "freedom"?