“I’m fifty. I’m done learning,” she said.
Done learning?! I thought.
Imagine
denying yourself new experiences,
New ideas and contemplations.
Never again choosing to
Cultivate a new skill,
To expand an old one.
Choosing to let brain
And heart
And muscle memory
Languish.
Choosing ignorance,
Choosing not to take on new information,
To let it move you,
Change you.
Imagine deciding
Not to evolve,
Adapt,
Adjust,
Improve.
Imagine all the things you’ll miss
In our dynamic, ever-changing world,
Because you decided to no longer build new neural pathways
Because of something as arbitrary as the number of years you have lived.
As if learning is not one of the greatest aspects of living,
One of the greatest joys of being human,
Of being sentient,
Of being part of this vast, ever-expanding Universe.
Imagine being willing to deny yourself so much.
To think it’s a choice I would understand.
I should have known as soon as she said it,
that the contract we had agreed to would not be seen to the end.
That she would ignore my expertise, the very reasons she gave for hiring me.
She had nothing new to learn, after all.
It’s fine though, that it didn’t work out.
I’m still learning.
Visit www.KaitlynSCHatch.com to see more of my work in the world, including the books I’ve written, a collection of my artwork, and the podcast Everything is Workable.