PERPETUAL STUDENT

Isn't it amazing how we rushed our way through school? Some of you even hated school.  I wasn't one to hate school, but I even convinced myself that I wasn't a good pupil (one of my favorite words). This was after high school graduation, during my first semester of college. I eventually dropped out because again, I thought I wasn't good. My words were, "I'm not college material".

I lived that lie for years. I LOVE learning and over the years I've come to terms that I am a perpetual student. I have returned to college (several times), and last year received an Associate's degree in Christian Education.  I am still in pursuit of my Bachelor's and am studying for a degree in Christian Counseling.

But you know, it's not a degree that draws me. Through my career life, I've run across NUMEROUS people who had degrees but didn't have the knowledge behind it. In fact, some I would say were pretty lame. I mention this because I was always shocked when I learned this. Not that they weren't very bright, but because I found myself slightly envious that they had the degree and the great position because of it, yet I was always the one they depended on to do the work they were being paid to do!  Me, with no degree!  So I learned that it's not the degree that makes a person.

I'm not a brain, and definitely not a genius. In fact, I wouldn't even consider myself all that smart (although I KNOW I'm not dumb!). I have to study and prepare and make an effort to learn. But that's just the thing. I have an insatiable appetite for learning.  I am open and willing to absorb what's before me.

I never want to stop learning. I can't imagine living without learning! I can't imagine not discovering new things. I can't imagine not having my mind and imagination expanded.  And I definitely never want to reach a point where I feel that I know it all, or that I can't be taught. I truly believe that when we stop learning, we become stagnant and we stop growing. When an organism that is designed to develop stops growing, it dies.

I love being a perpetual student. And as I am facing 50, I so wish that I could return to that 18 year old college freshman and tell her that, yes, she is college material, and she can do it!  I thank God that He has allowed me to learn this about myself.