Why do I LOVE School?

(Yes. I realize that this isn't my last post about Zions. My laptop got sick and I had to get it fixed. Luckily I know someone who can fix it. He's cheap and he's A HOTTIE! Alas, this is not a post about Zions. That will come later, perhaps tomorrow when I should be studying. Now, back to matter at hand.)

Seriously. I do. I LOVE going to school. I LOVE learning - about myself, about others, about things, about people, about places, about words, about going to class in freezing weather, about life.

I've had a very personally fulfilling week. Here's why:

I got to be in the same room as this guy, hear him lecture and watch him perform. Not once, but twice.


So who is he and why do you care? This is John Riley. He is a legendary Jazz drummer. He has played with Miles Davis. He has written the book on Bebop. He performed with the USU Big Band and he was AMAZING. He came to my class. He lectured. He performed.

This is why I love school. When in my LIFE would I have been able to learn from a master of drumming? I realize that I'm not a drummer, nor am I a Jazz aficionado, but I do realize that just being in the same room as him is a fulfillment of someone's dream, so I am grateful that I got to see him perform and to be taught by him. I learned about music. I learned about passion. I learned about the greatness that can come from passion. I learned.

Not enough to convince you? Here's another:

Last week, I went here:


I went here to learn about culture. To learn about faith as seen by another religion. To learn about life.

And I did. I met four of the nicest people that I have ever had the privilege of meeting. It was me, and the four of them. Why was I nervous to go I will never know because they made me feel at home. I went for an assignment, I left with a new understanding of a culture that is so welcoming. They set aside their evenings to spend an hour and a half teaching me about their culture for an assignment. They allowed me to observe their evening prayer. They provided me with a copy of the Qur'An. I don't know what I will do with it, but I know that I will always keep it.

Why?

Because when I walked out of their Mosque I felt like a better person. Not in a religious kind of way, but in a "man-kind" kind of way and it made me realize that I CRAVE learning about other cultures. My shy self just longs to step out of my shell and meet new people and have new experiences and grow with them and from them...

School.

It provides me with experiences that I otherwise would have never had. If there were two me's - one stuck in 2005 when I was thinking about coming to school, and the current me - side by side, I don't know that I'd recognize the old me. This is a good thing.

I am so grateful for the chance that I have to go to school. Yes, it is a mixed blessing and sometimes bittersweet, but since I'm here, I'm going all in and I'm going to let it mold me into the woman that I am supposed to become.

That is why I LOVE it!