“If you don’t have peace within yourself, learning cannot take place.”
—Aki Kurose
Tag: Learning
What I Learned from Reading My Elementary School Report Cards as an Adult
Five years ago, my mom came to visit and brought a plastic tote full of drawings, worksheets, and other papers from when I was a kid. I began to look through it, but after flipping through a few preschool paintings and coloring book pages, I became bored and overwhelmed by how much there was, and I set the box aside. It remained closed through three moves and ended up in a closet that collects miscellaneous junk.
When I did the 30 day minimalist challenge in January, I was determined to tackle that closet. I pulled down the plastic tote and spent several evenings working my way through it. The box contained everything from day care drawings and hand-made cards to report cards, individualized education plans, and reports and short stories I’d written. Looking over everything provided a sweet and fascinating perspective on my childhood. Rather than seeing my youth through the lens of my memory, I got a more objective glimpse into my early years. Read more
Quote of the Week
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
–James Baldwin
Quote of the Week
“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”
Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem
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The Bar Exam: Perspective and Self-Care
Across the United States, recent law school graduates have begun studying for the bar exam, a two-day (sometimes three-day) test offered during the last week of July and also in February). Each state gives its own version of the exam, which usually includes a day of tricky multiple choice questions and a day consisting of some combination of essay questions, short answer questions, and a closed-universe performance test. Intensive test-prep courses usually begin in late May, and many test-takers study full-time and then some.