Long Days and Deep Reflection

Oh, it's Wednesday! That means tomorrow is a test... and then the weekend!

So today was class first (surprise, surprise). We have two teachers for our classes. The first two days, we had Hava, who is very nice and goes over things slowly and answers questions when we ask them. Yesterday and today, we had Aviv, who is very gay, very obnoxious, and just flat mean. He makes fun of us for asking questions and refuses to write anything down. I got yelled at for using a dictionary since he said a word four times and I still couldn't understand him. >.<

So, I haven't really struggled with an academic subject in a really long time. The chemistry classes that I had issues with, I did what I needed to do to get a decent grade, relied on the curve and pretty much learned how to BS my way through any assignment. I am fortunate in the fact that writing comes naturally to me, I love arguing and research, so papers aren't a hassle, and I can usually figure out most math or logic. In high school, I was pushed to write and read and do research and put effort into whatever it was that I was doing. That drive sort of slipped away from me in college, as I bounced from major to major, career to career. I must give props to my high school for being an incredible environment - everyone there wanted to be there, wanted to go to college and do really impressive things. And most of my classmates are.

College was sort of a let down, because all of the sudden there were people who were only there for the parties, people who were simply using it as an escape from home, people who didn't care about academics, people who had a multitude of reasons for being there that didn't include anything centered on education or learning. My high school was nothing but kids who were interested in information for the sake of education, and we enjoyed learning as much as we loved complaining about the work we had to do. But I was at my academic prime. I was interested, I was excited, I thought the world was open for my exploration, and that I could do anything as long as I was willing to learn how to do it.

And then college came and I somehow got sorted into a major with very specific career options that I ended up not really being very interested in. I was slated into a group of students who were oddballs because of their love of learning, their interest in things, their ease at school because they found it interesting. People who say I'm smart frustrate me because everyone has the capability to learn things, but so few people take that opportunity to do so. Even tonight, I had an experience that makes me so disheartened with the general population. (I know, I'm skipping ahead, but my day was pretty much class, lunch, study, dinner, movie.)

This evening, we were invited to a private screening of The Wonder, and Israeli movie, by our TAU Madrachim (basically our counselors).  They have all these different activities and tours and stuff to expose us to Israel and show us around, etc. Anyways, tonight they took us to this movie.  The theater was awesome. It was in a mall with all these lights and it was decorated with really cool posters and designs and all these statues of famous movie characters. (Go check out my Facebook to see some of them!) I was taking a whole bunch of pictures. (Obviously. That's what I do.) A particular friend was making fun of me. As per usual. So I take a lot of pictures. I don't force them on anyone. I don't take pictures of people. I snap what's going on in my life when I'm traveling.  Just like this blog, I want to be able to reflect and see what things were like.

I was so excited. All these cool statues. Iron Man, Mickey Mouse, the Genie from Aladdin, Olive Oyl, Tin Tin, Sly... so many. And I was being made fun of. So I told her my favorite quote, one by Roald Dahl -

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." 

She kind of looked at me funny and I let it go.

The immediate preceding line is, "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."

I think the whole quote is something so astounding and such an incredible way to view the world. I was so enamored with these statues. They're so reminiscent of home, but thousands of miles away. I'm definitely a kid at heart. It makes me happy. And there are people standing there making fun of me. Instead of appreciating the fact that our environment is in fact global (something that's only been proven true to me time and time again through my various travels), they were of the opinion that it was no big deal, it was expected, it was blase.

And yet, they had a Spongebob, Winnie the Pooh, and Iron Man statues in Tel Aviv, Israel.  Five THOUSAND, 671 miles away from New York City, 7551 miles from Hollywood, there are statues representing the most iconic movie characters of the past decades. If that's not awe-some, I don't know what is.

Our world is so globally linked at this point in time that it's impressive that there are as many differences in culture as there are. And that should be celebrated. And those differences should be pursued for the sake of learning and exploring. Get excited about the similarities just as much as the differences, though. We're all human, we all share SO MUCH, and it's really impressive how you can have a conversation about Duck Dynasty in the university book store and buy Disney products in every country in the world. That's the magic of today's world. 

But it's also magic that we have the thousands of religions and careers and so much information. Cars and boats and planes and trains and spaceships and language and math and physics and history and philosophy and anthropology and archaeology and medicine and the body and the brain and people and trees and cats and... everything. The amount of stuff we know is intangibly huge. The amount of stuff we still have to learn about is infinite. 

So why would you not be interested in learning just a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more? What we find out today might be tomorrow's magic. The internet was a dream, and yet, I get to broadcast my crazy rants on this page and reach out to however many people want to read it. I get to talk to my parents every day, even though they're seven hours behind me and I'm going to bed when they're going to work. You have to believe in the magic to see it, but you also have to want to participate in that magic. 

And now, after this incredibly huge tangent/rant, I'll get back to my magic.  Not the magic of the movie theater, but the magic that I had renewed in the past couple of months that is really shoving its head into my idealized plans. I've been lucky in my education that I've been interested, and I was upset that I had lost that inspiration in college. And then I figured out that my five-year-old self had the right idea in saying I wanted to be a teacher, and I got so excited about my chemistry education research. But it was still a little relaxed. Excited, but still not inspired.

Now, I'm in a class that's kicking my ass. I studied for the first time since high school. (Studied, not crammed.) I'm interested in learning Hebrew. I'm ecstatic to be here in Israel and cannot express how much it means to have the opportunity to be here. I'm learning, and feel like I'm learning. It's not regurgitation for a professor who hates teaching. It doesn't even matter if my teachers here don't like teaching. I'm learning, and I'm so excited to be learning. 

My teacher drives me insane and makes me feel like an idiot. And this is something that rightfully makes me feel dumb, which gives me so much more drive to learn it, because it is something that I can do, something that will benefit me, but is also fun. In a week, I've learned thirteen verbs. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I can communicate with a population that I couldn't interact with before. And it's a language that is international on so many levels. I'm not even going to get into the religious implications of being here in Israel. That's a topic for another post.  (Though I did have a wonderful two hour lunch discussing philosophy of religion today...) 

I'm surrounded with so many students who are here for the fun of it, who aren't appreciating the opportunity to be here. I was surrounded in college by so many masses that didn't care so much about classes as the gossip going on or the parties being planned or the idealized four years of college that is essentially very little responsibility with very little supervision. College isn't about learning anymore. But that's what it should be. Even so, the problem is even more basic - that people don't want to learn, there's no interest, and there's no excitement about the world, even the little things. 

So I leave you with this tonight - seek out the magic, and make your own. I wish that I could better express my love of learning, and somehow inspire it in more of the people I meet. 

Lilah tov!

P.S. The movie was awful. You kept waiting for something to happen, a plot twist, something. It was very predictable, and very long. But it was a fun night out.