What did you learn today?
By Sharron Stockhausen,
MMA
Next to the age old question, "What is the meaning of life?" comes another question just as difficult to answer. "What did you learn today?" can stump the best of us.
History doesn't record exactly when a child first heard that dreaded question, but I can imagine the answers a Stone Age Junior or Missy gave. "I learned that throwing stuff can get you into trouble," or "I learned that being pulled by my hair hurts."
We're still learning those same lessons eons later. Once, when I was a newlywed and angry with my spouse for some reason I can't remember now, I threw a full can of opened (but it DID have the plastic cover on) Crisco shortening at him. He shifted slightly to the side as it passed him and smashed into the kitchen wall just beyond. While I don't recommend this behavior, I must admit I learned something from it. The flimsy aluminum can flattened as it hit the floor. Some law of physics came into play during the impact because the plastic lid flew off and the greasy white contents of the can spurted across several feet of kitchen floor.
My husband looked down at the mess on the floor, looked at the horror on my face, laughed and said those dreaded words, "That'll teach 'cha," as he walked out the door.
I pride myself on being a fast learner and to this day I have never thrown another thing in anger.
Another age old lesson I learned is that it hurts when my hair is pulled. As a child I wanted long hair. My mother always had it cut short. It often looked like a boy's cut. I think that's why it was called a "bob."
When I was old enough to have some say in my hairstyle, I let it grow longer. During my high school years I'd wrap small sections of hair around a brush roller and stick a plastic pick through it until it rested against my scalp. Next I'd take a pink nylon bouffant cover edged with elastic, pull it over the curlers, and snap the elastic into place along my hairline. Then I tried to sleep.
The next morning my head was always sore from being pricked by thousands of tiny brush bristles and dozens of plastic hair picks. But that wasn't the worst. What really hurt was taking my hair out of the curlers. Every section felt like it was wrapped in a crazy eight fashion as I undid the curlers.
After I'd liberated all my hair, I brushed it, then teased it, then combed the top layer over the teased hair to cover the rat's nest I'd just created. And I did all of this in the name of beauty.
I've learned that I don't want to do that any more. My hair is still long. But these days I shower and wash my hair at night so it dries naturally while I sleep. A little touch up with a curling iron is all I need in the morning and I feel more rested than I did in my teens.
Lessons come to us in many ways. During this time of year I get schedules of fall classes at the local vo-tech, community college, school district community education, professional seminars, craft and fabric store classes, and lunch and learn workshops at work. Obviously there is much to learn and many opportunities to do so.
How do you feel about absorbing new knowledge? Did you like school or hate it? Why did you feel as you did? How does that impact you today?
I love learning. My parents had high expectations of me academically. My father never went past eighth grade, yet he always supported his family by running his photography business. My mother was the youngest of seven and the only one of them who graduated from high school. Her mother didn't approve and thought she should quit school, go to work, and "earn a few bucks."
But my mother was so determined to get her education that she left home and was made a ward of the state. That meant she became a nanny for the high school football coach's family while she finished school.
The steps she took to make sure she continued to learn had a great impact on me. I watched her leave for night school many evenings so she could upgrade her work skills and get a better job.
Like many products of the 50's and 60's, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I went to the University of Minnesota right out of high school. I didn't like it and quit after one quarter.
I met my husband when I was 18 and we married a year later. We had our daughter ten months after we married and our son 17 months after that. We were young and had a lot of responsibility. But we also learned a lot about life.
I wouldn't trade those lessons for anything. I learned that you don't need money to be happy. Having people who love you , who need you, and who believe in you brings much more happiness than money.
I learned that you're never too old to go back to school. I finished my bachelor's degree as an adult learner (our son was 20 when I received my degree). I finished my master's degree two years later. (My goal was to beat our kids out of college).
Our daughter has her bachelor's degree and our son has his master's. It wasn't easy on either of them because they had to pay for their educations themselves, just as my husband and I did.
They weren't happy watching their friends' parents ante up thousands of dollars every year while they worked, but they did it. Today they are both successful in their own right because they learned that anything worth having is worth working for.
What did you learn today? That dreaded question has haunted family dinner tables for generations. But it's not the question that has value as much as the answer each of us gives to the question.
I hope you've learned that life is precious, family and friends are to be treasured, good health is important, and faith is what gets us through everything. Once you've learned those things, the rest just falls into place.
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