Teaching continues to fascinate me after all these years primarily because I’m so curious about people. I love learning from students: I love to learn what students think about and why, how they work best, and what motivates them.
I also love asking about what challenges them at this point in their lives. I learn today about the difficulty of managing so much social data, of redefining happiness, well-being, and recovery, and of balancing so much work. It feels like a different world than from when I was in college. I wasn’t expected to know my plan for personal happiness, wellness, or social data management.
I want to slow down the morning, pour everyone a cup of ginger peach tea, and watch the autumn leaves fall. And in this scenario, nobody’s posting anything or anxious about whether or not this activity builds their wellness profile.
We’d just drink tea and watch leaves.
But maybe these students want to invite me to settle into their world, too–the one where I know how to leverage the power of social media, optimize my health, and access and synthesize more data than I can imagine. They could teach me so much. I could learn a new language of images and micro-messaging and social complexity.
I could empathetically connect with thousands and increase my capacity, as they have.
And drink tea slowly.
I have much to learn and much to pass on, and maybe the trick is keeping that double mindset of always learning, always teaching.