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