How do you learn?

As students we are in a classroom from the time we are 5 years old until we are about 22, sometimes older. It’s all we have known and all we have ever done. But that’s just it, the majority of what we “do” is sitting in a classroom, listening to people talk to us, reading from a textbook, or researching on the internet. Where is the actual doing? Where is the real learning? Do you want to know where it is? I can tell you- it’s at Cal Poly. It’s in the rows of cabbage at field 25, its out at the horse unit in the arenas, it’s at the dairy at 3 a.m. during a double milking shift. It’s where students are actually doing things, they are experiencing real world situations outside of a classroom setting.

I believe that some of life’s greatest lessons can’t be taught in a classroom or read from a textbook, you have to literally experience it. I am so blessed to say that I have had the opportunity to do just that, from being in 4-H and raising livestock to packing up my life and studying abroad in Australia with Cal Poly.

You can apply our Cal Poly motto of “Learn By Doing” to any aspect in life. Being here in Australia, it wasn’t the actual act of traveling here that I have learned things, it has actually been through that spontaneous Melbourne trip, the random beach adventures, and the decision to just buy a train ticket to go and see what I can find there. Travelling has oddly enough taught me confidence. I learned confidence by taking that chance to plan a trip and have no clue what exactly I was going there to see but, doing it anyways. If you know me, I am a big planner, so just randomly buying a plane ticket to a foreign destination that wasn’t in the plans is a pretty big step.

Doing this though and being a travel agent for myself has actually taught me to be confident in my decisions. I think when I go back home l am going to be fully prepared to hit the road and start travelling up and down the state with my trailer in tow. It is with this confidence that I believe I will have a new outlook on my future; I am not afraid to take that job across the state or be a jillaroo in the outback. Confidence is one of those skills that is really hard to acquire but, you can find it through the most unique experiences.

Not only have I learned to travel by just doing it, along the way I have learned how to be truly independent, master public transportation in three different Australian states, build up my confidence and create some lasting memories with the greatest friends along the way. So don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone for a little to just go and actually do something and learn from that. Not everything has to be learned from a text book, sometimes the most important things you learn are the things that you experience for yourself.