The incredible fun of learning

Gosh, oh golly, gee whillikers, and whoa mama! (Doesn't she have a way with words?) I love learning. I love it, love it, love it. It can be any kind of class, from storytelling to grammar. If there is a chance to participate and use my brain and energy, I love it. It is a pleasure I have long denied myself. I forgot just how much fun it can be.


Last night I attended a class on writing. I had seen a volunteer opportunity for writing tutors for adults and thought this was something I would like to try. I was asked to observe the class. What a revelation. From the course syllabus: Writing Fundamentals is the first of our series of three writing courses. It is designed to teach participants how to recognize the basic parts of a sentence, thus beginning the process of learning to write effectively. Participants work primarily with isolated sentences, either editing sample sentences provided in class or for homework, or composing their own sentences and then submitting them for feedback. This course's six lessons emphasize subject and predicate identification, verb structure and tense, noun and pronoun usage, and capitalization. This is a six week course on the parts of the sentence! Last week they started with nouns and verbs. This week we had nouns, verbs, helping verbs and apostrophe. Lively discussion on compound nouns, and I was deep in the fray.


I don't know if I was put in advanced reading and never had much grammar, or if my head was in the clouds, but I do not remember ever learning predicates or how to break down a sentence. Just looking through the course material shows me how much I need to learn or relearn. I know how to write, I just don't know how I know.


My experience is way different from the other people in the class. On the volunteer application I had to write what I expected to get from volunteering. I said that I wanted to see if I could be a tutor and if this was something to which I wanted to devote my time. I would also like to make a difference in someone's life. The participants were there for many reasons including being court ordered to attend. The organization's mission is to get people out of generational poverty and into productive work situations. They work with people who are in other situations too. Two men, one young and the other much older, are in the class as part of anger management training. They know how to write a sentence as do many of the others. A young woman who is trying to get her children back from foster care has been journaling since sixth grade. But there are others with minimal education who need to learn how to write better to get a job. The teacher is fantastic, engaging his students and keeping it light. They all have contracts and he lets them know exactly what is expected of them. 


Is there a timetable for emerging from a deep depression and embracing life again? If there is, I don't know it. I had five years to take classes, do crafts, volunteer, exercise, do whatever I wanted and all I wanted to do was sleep. My daughter gave me a class at the Art Center as a present but it wasn't right for me. She gave me a class at Bobby Bead, but it wasn't right for me. My sister gave me gorgeous beads, they sit in the closet. I will look for a class that feels right. Maybe the long darkness I have been living in is lightening. I can see the gradual changes that I am making back to being the happy person I long to be.


I don't know if I will ever be able to thank my brother and sister and mother in law for providing the means for me to live in my little condo. Here I met my neighbors and have been welcomed by a group of great old ladies who read books and play cards. Here I've played in the pool with my family and have learned to be with my grown daughters on my own. I've got a job where I have learned to sell and be with tons of different people each day. I'm learning patience and acceptance. It is not a career, but it is a step back into the work world. There was a long time when I lost who I was; it is a pleasure finding joy in the things I love. I can't wait for next Wednesday and the next grammar class.