when i finished school a few years ago, i was so relieved. thank god! no more studying. no more busy weekends. no more constantly being stressed out. i was so glad to have gotten that part of my life over with. i was so psyched that from now on i would just work at a job where the work stopped after business hours, and i would not be working during nights and weekends.
strangely enough, all of a sudden i’m starting to feel very differently about all that. i’ve been kind of missing school lately. i miss learning new things on a daily basis. i miss being pushed into examining the world around me more closely. i miss trying to figure out the answers to complex questions. it’s nice to have something to stretch your mind to its limits on a regular basis.
in a lot of ways, work used to do that for me. programming was tough. i was constantly learning new things everyday and struggling to keep afloat. most of the engineers i worked w/ had at least some formal training in web programming, but i had to just pick stuff up as i went along. of course, everything i was learning was all on the same topic, computers, and not diverse as the learning in school is, but at least it was new and interesting.
now my job doesn’t really seem to have much more to teach me. i’ve learned most of what i need to know to do it well, and therefore am not pushed to find out new things. dont get me wrong, i still love my job. it’s a lot of fun. the people are cool. it’s *great* to have projects you work on be seen by over 10 million people a month. bt i definitely miss the learning….
-v
Well, sort of. I am in school still, but it is far from challenging. Well, up until last night. I just posted about it in my journal.
But yeah, being mentally challenged rocks…
<i>i’ve learned most of what i need to know to do it well, and therefore am not pushed to find out new things</i>
If you really want to progress in a career, you need to take it to the next level. Right now, you’re content to just sit back doing what you do. Well, take it upon yourself to learn more, to expand your knowledge and then you can likely do your job even better and likely progress even further.
You don’t need school to learn. You just need a desire to do it. Go get a book on something interesting and study. Get a book on something related to your field. Or if you really want the classroom environment and homework, then take a night class. Hell, talk to your boss about wanting to expand your abilities and they’ll likely pay for it, if it is indeed related to your field.
oh totally. i fully agree. if i want to learn more, it really in the end is up to me. the problem is that after working an 8 hour day, i get off work at 7, get home near 8, finish dinner around 8:30 or 9pm. at that point rarely would i be inclined to pop open a textbook of any kind. i just wanna chill for at least a few hours.
during work, i’m pretty swamped w/ work so i would hardly have time to study stuff while i was on the job. but yeah, i probably should try to put forth some effort to get my learn on…
-v
Yeah, true, but you might be able to work out a deal with your employers. Most places will totally work with you if you want to take classes, especially if it will make you that much more knowledgable in your field. Often they will pay for your schooling. It’s something to look into if you really are interested in “getting your learn on.”