© irene waters 2016
There probably comes a time in everybody’s life when the realisation that they are getting older suddenly hits home. Concerns about the development of altzheimers becomes real and perusing the current information available becomes more pertinent. This happened for me in the eighties. I started to learn ballroom dancing as this satisfied all three of the criteria for the prevention of this dementia – you had to remember the steps, it gave you exercise and it had a social component. For me it didn’t satisfy learning as my ballroom dance teacher believed that the man had to lead and the woman follow – and I did just that.
In order to test the ability of my brain to retain knowledge I enrolled in a psychology degree at university. Everyone doing an arts degree at Macquarie was condemned to do at least one unit of statistics. In this I discovered a passion that I had not previously known and found it interesting that my brother, having done his pHD in physics had taken up a career in statistics. If I’d discovered earlier my love for the subject I too may have gone down that path. The psychology though was a disappointment. After two years my brain was not stretched at all. I figured that as a nurse I had a background knowledge and my life experience sufficed for other knowledge I needed. Apart from reading for references it was just too easy. I didn’t feel I was learning anything and I was flying through the exams with distinctions.
It was time to change. Challenge myself. I had always been hopeless at Maths. My mother, who had attempted to tutor me as a child, explained my mathematical non-ability as being the result of a brain which was not logical. I blamed her for putting the tables on the back of the toilet door and then testing me when I exited the small room. The only thing I gained from that exercise was constipation and not having the basic tools I needed to be a force mathematically.
I successfully altered my academic path and changed to a science degree where I initially planned on majoring in biology but finally majored in earth sciences. I continued on with statistics and I now had to do first year maths. This I worried about so I hired a maths tutor who came in the long summer break to get me up to speed. He discovered I danced and wanted to do a 1 hour tute followed by some dancing. This went on for a few weeks and I was improving but he was starting to be amorous so these lessons discontinued. I continued practising and felt fairly confident on my first day in class until the lecturer put an equation up on the board. I probably could have done it had I half an hour to work on it but other students were yelling the answers out within seconds. The equation became longer and longer and I became more and more lost. At the end of the lecture I went to admin and unenrolled. It meant that without it I would be limited in the subjects I could take but I could manage.
We did have one lecturer who taught a lesson I have never forgotten. He said ” You won’t remember any of the lectures you do at university. But if you learn anything it will be that you will know that you don’t know but you will know how to research and discover the information that you need. You will learn to research.”
It is a lesson that I learnt well and it has stood me in good stead throughout all my career changes, in my writing and blogging and particularly as I am now doing a Masters by research.
In response to the Weekly Discover Challenge
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Congrats on the masters research and that is one great piece of advice – I call it “hunting” 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t quite got the masters yet – this one has been a real struggle. “hunting” is good. I like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh sorry – and I know what it is like to have detours and delays – so sending you a blog hug! And it helped me to remember it was a marathon and not a sprint – but still takes grit!
Xxoo
LikeLiked by 1 person
That blog hug is gratefully accepted. This I think has been the biggest challenge of my life – yes a marathon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey -and I juts voted for you in sacha’s blog awards – at least I think it was you as the Irene listed there – 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had no idea I had even been nominated. What an honour and thanks for that vote. A good start to the day. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
yes -a good way indeed – and congrats to you…
xoxo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks.
LikeLike
What a unique problem to have! Most people have the opposite—more challenge than they can handle! I agree with dancing being good for the brain. I took tango for two years, and, since it came with an entirely unfamiliar cultural perspective, kept me engaged (in a good way) to the extent of my abilities!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ask me now and I’d tell you the challenge is more than I want and everytime I have to upgrade the computer or something goes wrong I immediately get a stress headache. I think at the time I really did want to push myself outside my comfort zone. Psychology didn’t do it because of my nursing background and I’d had an interest in it for years. Even biology didn’t do it for me although it was more of a challenge as I knew nothing of fruit flies prior to this. Earth Sciences certainly gave me the challenge I wanted as I went into it knowing nothing. Due to it I knew about the volcano on Tanna which took us there on holiday.
I’m glad you enjoyed learning the Tango. We learn a tango in ballroom but I think there are several varieties. It is a pity that you couldn’t keep it up.
LikeLike
How is the research and writing going, Irene? I used to tell my medical students the same thing about what I taught them: they wouldn’t recall a lot of the content, but they’d learn it when they went back and used it and they’d know where to go for the information they needed. Just laying down some neural pathways!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you couldn’t teach them a more useful bit of information. I am so close to completion Noelle. I have submitted my intention to submit form and doing those fiddly little things like making sure every reference is listed and the format is correct.
LikeLike
We tried ballroom dancing but my motor cortex was in total rebellion – I was totally rubbish and this became self-defeating in terms of confidence!
Having been near the top of my degree class in stats I expected my MSc to be a breeze but found the computer systems and electronic access to library materials a bigger part of the challenge. I was up til midnight learning how to input data whilst the youngsters had already finished and probably gone out partying 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
You should have persisted Lisa. Dancing comes slowly to some but it always comes eventually. It is a lesson in patience and perseverance.
I know exactly what you mean with the youngsters being able to do it and go partying but at least you did.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Persistence and perseverance have been my life lessons! They conflict with my desire for constant novelty (and instant success!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha. You are a new age child Lisa.
LikeLike
What a multi-talented and highly educated woman you are! The advice to know how to find the information you need is empowering. Well done! A great lesson learned.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t see myself as that Norah. The older I get the more I know I don’t know and how little time there is to read all those books that I should have read when I was younger. At least that lesson learnt has stood me in good stead.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know! I know! I know!
LikeLiked by 1 person