Pleasure of Learning

As we live through each day, we save memories in our mind; Memories of good times and bad times, perceptions about people, mistakes we made, and joy we shared. There are many more kinds of memories that keep getting added to our mind each day. As we grow old, these memories slowly transition into heavy trunk loads of baggage that tend to keep holding us back whenever we want to move forward. Whenever we see our old neighbor on the street, we are reminded of how snobbish he is, so we never talk to him. We don’t like to take vacations as we cannot adjust to the newness of a place, the food and the people. We try to relive moments from our past, and we fail to even notice the present.

New technologies and new cultures have added so many avenues to learn, explore and enjoy. While the past was amazing, the present is not too bad either, and the future is up to us to make it. 

I feel I am blessed to be part of a family which is continuously open to learning from the present and adapt to it. My mother struggles with her laptop each day, but has never given up learning from it. She started trying out different cuisines, at an age where most parents would not like to eat out.  My Father-in-law is thrilled to have his new iPad, and did his first ever Skype Video call to me. He is figuring out why so many people are using Facebook. 

These are the role models that I would like to remember as I grow old. They remind me that ‘Learning’ doesn’t come with an expiry age. If we just remember to fondly keep our past in the past tense, there are millions of opportunities to enjoy life in the present.