Continuous Self-Improvement

Hello Dear Readers. I hope you've had a good week.

After I earned the last three certificates, I took a little bit of a learning break, and then realized I was bored. Boredom is bad for me, for many reasons, the first of which is that my brain does not handle boredom well, as I like to be challenged.

So I've gone back to Codecademy and I've been having a great time. I brushed up on my HTML5 knowledge, and now I'm almost done with their CSS course. It's been fun building on what I started learning at 13, when dial-up internet had finally come to my hometown and I could figure out how to make web pages.

I'm of the opinion that as long as people are learning, they are growing. I like to grow, and to know more when I go to bed than when I woke up that morning, a continuous self-improvement. I also enjoy learning new ways to express myself, as communication is always an important part of being human. Coding is just another language to learn to help express something visually, and I enjoy it.

Whatever way you like to learn, and however you enjoy communicating, I hope you are taking time for yourselves, Dear Readers. Have a good week.

-A.M.W.

Learning As A Hobby

I enjoy having hobbies. I love reading fiction and crocheting, just as much as I love reading non-fiction, learning how to code, and speak German. But when it comes to learning and also trying to find full-time work, how can I know that what I'm studying on my own time is worth it?

The answer for me is surprisingly simple: Just as much as job searching and applying to jobs is stressful for me, learning things I'm interested in helps me unwind from all that stress. This is because I use the act of learning the same way I use the act of crocheting as a hobby. It is a calm time, a time where I can shut off the stressed side of my brain and dive head-first into things that interest me and I want to know more about for a couple hours.

I started learning German via Duolingo starting in January, as part of my resolution for growth. Progress has been nominal, and I am nowhere near close to start having conversations yet, but I'm having fun learning words and small phrases. I know that a large part of my family tree has roots in Germany, so I thought it would be an interesting language to learn, and I was right. Learning German has given me a greater appreciation for compound words, and it has also proven to me that English is just seven different languages stacked on top of each other and wrapped in a trench coat.

More recently, I started up basic coding lessons via Codecademy. I have always been a nerd, and taught myself a lot of HTML when the internet became available in my town when I was 12 years old. I've learned more over the years, to the point that I was using HTML every day at work, and I would like to delve deeper in coding. What I've learned so far about the basics has been interesting, and I look forward to learning more.

So what is next for what I want to learn? Nothing so long-term as languages, but there are some very nice, short, learn-at-your-own-pace classes I can take about grant writing. Taking a few of those would look good on a resume and my LinkedIn profile, as well as be a nice challenge for me to stretch my writing skills again.

I hope that whatever your hobby is, it's something that keeps you happy and helps you unwind.

-A.M.W.