I have homework to do.

I graduated from college more than 22 years ago now, and except for that brief period during my senior year when I was trying to figure out what came next, I’ve never really considered going back to school. It’s not that I don’t love learning new things. What I don’t love is being on someone else’s time table to do it.

May I just say to all the teachers out there how much I admire you? And how much I don’t want your job? The thing I liked least about being a student was reading what someone else told me I should read, by the deadline they told me I needed to read it. I felt like there was always something I should be doing…reading, writing, studying. Until the final paper or exam was completed or handed in, I didn’t feel like I could really relax. There was always something else I could be doing. And my teacher friends are always preparing lesson plans or grading papers and tests. God bless you. I’m all about the leave-my-job-at-the-office mentality.

Tonight’s homework isn’t such a burden–but it does need to be done before tomorrow at 4:30pm, and since I’m working all day tomorrow until then, it’s time to do the homework…for my book group.

Once I hit publish on this third blog entry on this third day of November, I will be turning my attention to Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated?” from his collection What the Dog Saw, and to the Radiolab podcast called Memory and Forgetting. (These are two completely different assignments for the same book group; no idea if there will be any correlation between the two. Stay tuned.)

Homework time.

UPDATE: I just finished listening to Memory and Forgetting. Fascinating, and highly recommended. Memory is a fascinating phenomenon. Now onto the reading assignment.