Always a Lifelong Learner
[Music]
[Applause]
i pledge
to be a lifelong learner i stumbled upon
this idea as i was entering my last year
of my undergraduate career my
educational career
and i kept thinking to myself have what
i’ve learned in these past 16 plus years
of
formal education enough to carry me
throughout the rest of my life
will my island of knowledge forever stay
this size
this is why i decided to be a lifelong
learner
lifelong learning opens your eyes to new
perspectives and in make us a more
well-rounded person
lifelong learning helps us engage in new
ideas and hopefully in result
find a new passion in life lifelong
learning teaches us
to embrace that childlike curiosity we
all once had
lifelong learning opens our eyes to new
perspectives
like me and five percent of this global
population
are terribly afraid of spiders
i mean look at them they come in all
different shapes and sizes
and don’t get me started on those legs
so i became so fed up one day i wanted
to know their purpose on this earth
so i decided to do a google search
and what i learned was that they not
only control our net and fly population
on this earth
but they also protect our crops the
crops that make some of our
favorite food imagine the world
without beer and chocolate cake
a world i don’t want to be in
so i decided to take a second and do a
simple google search and it truly
totally changed my mind around about
something i was unsure about
actually afraid of so why don’t we do
this with people we meet
every day i mean people come in all
different shapes and sizes colors races
religions
why don’t we take that second and do a
simple google search
or even ask a polite question to figure
out how they see the world
how they look at things differently than
us
this would make us a more well-rounded
person and in the end
make the world a better place
lifelong learning teaches us to engage
in new ideas and then
hopefully find a new passion in life
in high school i was able to go to
multiple different camps just to figure
out what i wanted to do with my life
or even majoring in college so
one summer i went to veterinarian camp
it only made sense for me to be a
veterinarian because i
loved animals during this camp i learned
a lot about what it takes to be a
veterinarian
but also during this camp i learned that
i wasn’t
cut out to be a veterinarian science
just wasn’t my forte
but during this camp outside of the
classroom we took hikes
in the mountains and i enjoyed my life
so much
take a city girl from chicago and
enjoying
taking a hike and exploring the
mountains
i mean that camp wasn’t what i thought
it was going to be
but i did end up finding a new passion
of mine and a new appreciation for
nature
let’s skip to the next summer i went to
photojournalism camp
totally different between the summer
before and at that camp we were assigned
to do
a article similar to the humans of new
york but humans of bloomington
this assignment pushed me out of my
comfort zone we had to go out to people
in bloomington
ask them a question and ask them to take
a picture so we can create this article
and throughout this process i learned
that i love talking to people and
figuring out their stories
also during this camp i learned that i
do not want to sit
in the computer lab and write articles
or edit pictures
i knew that wasn’t my forte but i did
learn to get out of my comfort zone
and figure out that i love talking to
people because that article stretched me
out of my comfort zone
let’s skip to freshman year of college
like most freshmen we were required to
take a lot of different classes
and i decided to become a business major
i figured out there must be something
for me in the business world that i can
like fit into
but there was just this one class
marketing
principles you could not keep my hand
down in that class
i was always engaged raising my hands
asking questions
because i felt like i belonged there i
love that marketing allows us to be a
little bit more creative but also a part
of a team
and that’s something i felt made my
heart feel
full so if it wasn’t for going to
veterinarian camp or photojournalism
camp
or even taking a broad range of classes
i wouldn’t have found that passion of
mine
my passion of marketing
lifelong learning teaches us to nurture
that childlike curiosity
let’s take kids for examples they’re
always asking questions
why is the sky blue why do cars have
wheels
why can’t they eat ice cream before
dinner
i mean they have every right to ask
these questions they’re just trying to
figure out how the world works around
them and the way things
are i mean someone had to ask why do i
have to leave my house to get my
favorite food
now we have ubereat and grubhub someone
someone had to ask why do i have to
leave my home to get
see that movie that came out two weeks
ago hello
netflix and showtime and don’t let’s not
forget about amazon
changing the way we buy things every day
i mean most of us use some of these
apps on a daily basis because someone
asked
why they questioned the way that things
were
someone had to ask why can’t a woman be
a ceo of a fortune 500 company
and i am so grateful and proud to be in
a time where that is happening
every day so
what if we ask why now
what if we ask why today
what will our lives be like five years
from now
i believe it it is our responsibility
to grow our island of knowledge for
ourselves today
for ourselves tomorrow for ourselves
five years from now
and for generations to come this is why
i decided to be a lifelong learner
will you
[Music]
you