On Learning

A friend once said, “Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night.” I was born and raised in Vietnam, where in order to get an education, one must pay tuition fees, which my family could not afford. When I did attend school, the education was inadequate because the teacher did not seem to care, so I learned very little. I never thought I would get the chance to achieve my dreams. Those dreams require a great education.  I was 10 years old, my family arrived in the U.S. It was the toughest time of my life. One of the biggest challenges I faced was the language barrier. I was not able to speak a single word of English, and was therefore often laughed at. I felt isolated, but instead of being discouraged; I used those incidents as motivation to work harder. I started to chase down my passion. I started to translate everything using the dictionary I carried everywhere, spending hours each day to improve my English. I practiced as much as possible, but still focused on my studies. I gave my best to every project and assignment and made sure that I understood the concepts. The day I was named the only Mile High Scholar in my school, I knew that I was steps away from catching that bus, and I am still pushing myself to get there.

            As you can see, education and learning to me is not simply a practice or habit but it is something that I take really seriously. We are all learning and gaining new knowledge at every waking moments of our lives whether we want to admit it or not. But, to actually take that knowledge and applies it to the world and change it is what’s we’re all afraid of. For me personally, I wish to change the world one day in some way, shape, or form. What about you? What do you want to do with the knowledge you've spent years to acquired and will acquire? 

            In my Philosophy class, we've been reading Aristotle’s work. What’s really ironic is that this particular piece is on how acquiring knowledge through learning and experiencing the world around us. Aristotle believed that if we all share our knowledge and experiences with one another we will ultimately reached the full truth and all the truth of the world around us. I personally agree with Aristotle, but to an extent, for who knows what the ultimate truth is and when it has been reached.  So, here’s a short video I've pulled from the media of Aristotle thinking, maybe you can see for yourself and determine if you agree or disagree with me.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/