I asked my students another name game prompt: “What’s one thing you look forward to when you wake up in the morning?”
My favorite answer? A student says simply this: “I look forward to what I’m going to learn that day. I look forward to learning something new.”
Something new. Something I didn’t know before or see before.
Can you imagine the possibilities? Can you imagine this sentence as a cure for boredom and despair? I think of the pleasure of making new connections and of learning something new. For me, it’s learning new verbs and their origins. It might be experiencing something new–a new food or drink or a new television show. It might be learning something new about my daughters or husband. It could include learning a new game, reading about another country, or investigating something in the natural world.
I think about waking up with the energy and commitment to learn something new. I think about how, when evening comes, I would keep my commitment to learning something new by deliberate attention to some kind of phenomenon or research.
I get excited just thinking about tomorrow and what I might learn. I’ll let you know.