Taught to Learn

Krystal here. The other night my husband Aaron was telling me about an interesting conversation he'd had with his brother. I invited him to share his thoughts. Here's Aaron:

Early in the morning on New Year's Day, I was taking Kelly, my twin brother, home after he'd celebrated New Year's Eve with us, and we got into a conversation. As we drove, Kelly started telling me about a conversation he'd had with a Mongolian friend. To give a little more background to the conversation, Kelly spent two years abroad in Mongolia where he learned to speak the language. His friend had asked him if he thought he could be of some particular profession (Kelly couldn't recall which), and after thinking for a second, Kelly replied that he could. Thinking that his friend was just curious, Kelly responded with the same answer when the question was repeated with a few different professions. Finally, his friend said, a little exasperated, "You just think you can be anything." To which Kelly replied, a little surprised, that he probably could.

After relating the story to me, Kelly said, "I was thinking, isn't it amazing that our parents have prepared us to become whatever we want to be." Kelly and I are both university students, and Kelly recently put dozens of hours of work into a project for a construction managment competition team. He added, as we were driving, that he was currently in a position to become a construction manager, contractor, architect, industrial designer, graphic designer, or a number of other things. I'm in a similar position, having just finished a Bachelor's degree and currently pursuing a Master's degree in electrical engineering.

It was easy for me to see the same conclusion. With some minor exceptions, I have been given the confidence and education to pursue whatever I choose, and to be succesful at it. I believe I owe that foundation to the many many hours of work my mom put into being our primary educator up through 8th grade, and her continued interest in our educational and professional pursuits.

I think the most important idea is that we were taught to learn; we were shown the value of learning, and now there is no limit to our potential. Krystal and I have the goal to pass this type of educational foundation on to our kids.