Momentary Lapse of Reason

I would think it’s fair to assume that most teenage kids enrolled in school will reject a or many opportunities to learn more, whether that is due to procrastination, the rebellious nature of someone at that age or a divergence to traditional schooling methods. While this is natural and kind of expected, it can be toxic if it becomes a habit to reject new learning as there is something to be said about honing a passion and educating yourself in a way that allows you to advance in that very passion. But, talk is just talk and I am no stranger too rejecting new learning opportunities, in fact, there was a point where I had made a habit out of procrastinating and just doing enough to get by, and I am lucky enough to have been able to have the realization alone to admit that here. Throughout my school career thus far, it has always only been parental expectations of good grades and such that has kept me from failing, I could never say I had a sense of passion for traditional schooling/knowledge that came from me directly. But, I can probably thank those expectations for keeping me on the “straight and narrow” this far and keeping my mind open enough to expand my horizons eventually. For me, I have always found myself excelling in school if I have or can find a passion in the task outside of just getting it done in order to pass. For example, one of my biggest passions in life is music; playing it, listening to it, and attending as many live shows as possible, and earlier this school year, in english class we had a paper due that had to do with covered renditions of songs and I was able to write about my favorite band for a large portion of it. That, for me, stands out as one of the highlight moments in my high school career where I had legitimately enjoyed the assignment, and was fulling open to any new learning to get the job done. That moment resonates with me as a time of reason where I was able to put my passion in perspective as in, what I have and could accomplish with more knowledge in the area. I interpreted the saying, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but rather the lighting of a fire.” by poet, W.B Yeats as the filling of a pail vs lighting a fire being a metaphor for accumulating a large portion of knowledge that doesn’t have have any long term use to you as being less important than lighting the fire, which would represent more wholesome and passion fueled knowledge geared towards you personally that gives you that spark and fuel to keep going for the long haul. With that logic, I can wholeheartedly say that I consider my “fire” to relate back to my english paper story and music as a whole. Music has always been something I’d like a career in, whether it is performing, writing, managing artists, bringing a live experience to life, but even though some of that sounds attainable , it has also sounded equally like a fantasy and one of those dream jobs where there is no “realistic future” in, so naturally that would bum me out and the fire inside you kind of dims, a reflection of the loss of interest due to practicality. But, though it wasn’t a huge deal, looking back at that assignment and the fact that my passion for music overcame my historically passion-less school career, showed me that maybe if I stay on that train of thinking and use that level of energy in educating myself in that field , I may be able to make something out of the hobby that is long term and sustainable. And overall, keeping the fire burning, because like a campfire, with knowledge and success, you get out what you put in, whether that be hitting the books or kindling.

Photo on Foter.com