Learning

Last night we went to the BYU library to find some sources I used for a paper that will be published next year. While working under the direction of Dr. Dennis Wright, I was able to research the history of missionary work within the LDS religion from 1900-Present. After almost a year of research, Dr. Wright asked me to write about my findings. I did. Unknown to me, Dr. Wright passed my essay on to his colleagues and they suggested he enter the essay into the annual religious symposium held on BYU's campus in February. He did. And they accepted the essay. Dr. Wright and I will be presenting our findings at the symposium for 90 minutes in February. The essay will be published after the symposium.

I just learned about this three days ago and have been trying to gather all my findings to hand over to the men in charge of the symposium. I am so excited. I have always wanted to have a piece of writing published and since it didn't happen as an undergrad I thought I would have to wait until grad school. Guess not.

Being on campus last night made me miss education. Even miss BYU. Although I joke about some of the silly things and traditions around campus, I will never deny that I loved my education. I can still remember sitting in my American Lit class listening to my short, spunky teacher recite the words of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass." Three years later, this same teacher introduced me to Mark Twain. Not the Mark Twain everyone knows because of Huck Finn and A Connecticut Yankee, but the Mark Twain who wrote satirical short stories and funny travel logs. I remember another professor crying as he read the words of Shakespeare. I think I cried too. I learned why Shakespeare was brilliant in that class. I think back to my writing teacher carefully marking my paper in red pen and asking me to stay after class to speak with her. I learned how to use commas that day and haven't forgot since. I learned so many things at BYU. I miss learning. I don't necessarily miss the tests or the monotonous homework, but I miss being challenged. I miss writing papers. I told Tim as we left the library last night that I want to write a new paper on a new topic every four months. I felt like that was a realistic goal. I want to go back to the library and research topics. Now I can research topics I choose and not topics imposed on me. So I am anxious to start my new goal. I am looking for my first paper topic. Any ideas? Any good books to suggest?

Do you miss learning? What do you do to continue your education? Or are you just glad to be done?