…and Finding the Star that
Shines Brightest for You
Hear this, my boys: you will learn something new every day. This is 100% true right now as you fill up your heads with ideas and new discoveries by the minute. You both come home from preschool with amazing new skills you didn’t have before, and now one of you is already off to kindergarten. Wow! As Dr. Seuss once wrote, oh, the places you’ll go!
Where and how far you go depends on your willingness to learn, and your curiosity is the fuel. I see it every day in your early interests: big bro and how you want to know how everything works, little bro in your desire to organize and build. Yes, you will learn something new every day, but you have to want to learn. You have to keep your brains piqued. That means, you have to maintain a high level of interest in the things you find interesting.
Throughout your lives, you’ll find many things interesting. Explore them all. Feel them out. You’ll follow one or a few paths for a while, then choose another, then another. You’ll explore some intellectual pursuits that you may never follow up on. That’s the entire process. It’s keeping your minds open to the new and novel. As you grow older, you’ll find those one or two things that truly drive you. These are your passions. You will have prepared your minds in one way or another for them, and all the skills and tools you’ve added to your intellect will be used for those pursuits.
I hope you find them early. I hope you identify that star that shines brightest for you and aim toward it. Hitch your wagon to it. We, your mother and father, want to invest in you, as you should invest in yourself. Find what it is that you love—that fires up your mind—and go for it. You can only get better by learning as much as you can for as long as you can. Your education, whether it’s the highest of degrees you can earn, or a few classes here and there, is always a good idea. Being with other curious minds learning from educators who have dedicated their lives to helping you grow can only help you succeed. But remember, your education is by no means limited to the classroom. Oh, no! So much of what you learn, will be all on your own time.
You’ll find much later in life that your education is the one thing that is yours and yours alone. It exists within you, and it is you. Add to it the way you would a bank account. Save, and save some more, then give to others generously, or back to yourself. An open, learning mind pays forward, inward, and outward. Accept that payment and keep investing. An enriched mind is the best investment of all.
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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
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