#thestudent

Over the past quarter I have had to read multiple pieces centering around the concept of learning, from what it looks line in the brain, to how it can look in the classroom, to how family and events at home play a role in it. This has made me take a moment and stop and reflect on my own learning journey what has come to create the type of learner I am now. I’m not going to lie and say I remember what it was like to be four or five, but I can relay the stories my parents tell that illustrate a child who was in love with words and they stories they could tell. I was blessed with a mother who read Dr. Seuss to me every night and a father who who had a passion for explaining everything and anything. While it was my parents who created an atmosphere where learning was enjoyable, it was my grandpa that gave me a profound love of learning that has stuck with me and encouraged me to do what I have accomplished today. I remember him picking me up from school everyday and asking which map I wanted to look at of a country I had never or weaving history facts into a story that demanded attention and admiration. If there was a math problem that troubled my ten year old mind I would never get a direct answer from him, but a twenty minute explanation of the problem and the concept of math followed by the dreaded response “try again,”  until I eventually would get it right by myself. As I grew older I learned more from him than multiplication problems and World War II facts, but I learned to value different perspectives and to appreciation a good debate partner because in your lifetime theres rare and few, and he was the best. If any one was to embody the phrase learning is a privilege it would be him, and learning from him was the greatest privilege I will ever receive. The values he had taught me to carry within discovery and admitting when I am confused are things I carried with me through high school and things that have proved the most valuable in college. Although he is no longer here, I feel his presence in every business calc problem I can’t solve or in every new theory I read that has opened my mind up to new possibilities. His favorite flowers were orange carnations and it is this flower and this memory of him his love of learning that I have made sure that I never forget and have with me always.