It is Spring Break season and students of all grades around the country are enjoying a break from classes, homework and studies, if not this week, then close to this time. Little do they know or realize now that the process never stops…or shouldn’t. I had several good and memorable teachers prior to college, and I feel their effect to this day. I also benefitted from my dad’s disarming advice when it came to try something new:  “You ain’t gonna learn any younger.”  His choice of words made the encouragement easy to adopt.

I am reminded of this ongoing learning by several recent events.

At work, we’re adopting a new system to track donors, gifts and relationship development. This is the sixth or seventh system that I have encountered in my career, and this one is going to require that I up my game in how to use all the features to enhance the development operation and processes. I welcome the challenge.

The other day I texted my middle son to let him know that I had purchased some lumber for an upcoming project. He replied, “Wait…you build stuff?”  I had to chuckle since he does a great job building things and my oldest son is quite the woodworker and carpenter. I haven’t had the chance to build much over the years, but I am tackling a few projects that are requiring me to learn more than I currently know. I’m having a blast.

It amuses me that some of our younger neighbors think that I know a lot about gardening. I guess I do compared to many, but I am not a master gardener. I continue to learn about propagation, soil quality, companion plants and more. My wife often comments that she can tell that gardening makes me happy. I enjoy the work, but it is the learning that really makes me happy, particularly when I get to eat lessons learned successfully.

I have had a tractor since I bought my little slice of heaven about 14 years ago. I don’t get to use it often enough to learn new skills, but I continue to learn by watching others, particularly the Farmer Tyler channel on YouTube. I’m noticing improvements in my use of the box blade and that gives a great sense of accomplishment.

Accomplishments, success, happiness and challenges…there are many more years of those while learning in life compared to the years in school. My oldest son once shared, “I like to learn, dad. I just don’t like to be taught.”  A life of learning is grand.