An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life. ~ Author Unknown

My husband asked me this morning, "Are you glum?"

That's not a word you hear very often, is it?  Depressed, anxious, overwhelmed...those are the mental catch-words for this generation.  Bi-polar...it seems like everyone is bi-polar in one way or another. I actually looked up the definition of  "glum" as I'm sitting here.  It means:  sullenly or silently gloomy; dejected.

I told him no, I was just concentrating on not forgetting all the things I pack into his lunch box on a daily basis.  Just preoccupied. Not glum in the least.

Are any of you like me, having to look up word definitions when you come across one you're not 100% sure of the meaning, or you want to know the origins of them?  Very early in school, probably 2nd or 3rd grade, I had a teacher who drummed that discipline into our heads.  I can't speak for any of my other classmates, but it's something that has stuck with me my entire life and I'm glad it did.  I like knowing what the words I write or speak aloud mean.  It's just a quirk of mine.  It is also a means of connecting with past generations in my family.  One of my great-grandfathers read a page of the Bible, a page of the dictionary, and a page of Shakespeare every day.

Reading is my passion.

I am not college-educated.  When I graduated from high school you could walk into a job off the street and get hired with good pay and benefits, which is exactly what I did.  I worked in Medical Records in a large Portland hospital.  I learned a lot, and though most of it is probably prehistoric, considering the leaps and bounds in the medical profession in the past 45 years, I was a well of information for friends and family when shows like "ER" and various doctor shows came on and I could tell them what this-or-that procedure was, or what that diagnosis meant. I was known for my 'trivia junk yard' brain...what I learned I never seemed to forget.

Oh boy.  Were those ever the good old days.  I'm lucky to remember where I stashed the checkbook, let alone what a gastroesophageoduodenoscopy was.  Ha.

Back to reading, though.  Sometimes I see statistics posted about college-educated people who never open another book once they've graduated.  But, really, what gain on the 'average Joe' do you really have unless you're going in to a field like medical research or engineering or some other field like that?  My mom never graduated from high school but she was one of the most intelligent and well-read people I know.  You can educate yourself, reading books.  She passed that love on to me and I'm so thankful she did.  Now, instead of going to encyclopedias, my best friend for instant information is Google, which I use numerous times through a day.  What I don't know, I look up. A stagnant mind is a lazy mind, in my humble opinion.  You lose the desire to learn, you lose it all.

I knew someone who was the first in their family to be college-educated and they never let the rest of us forget it.  But when it came to common sense and coping with life...they took a while to figure that out.

I guess it just boils down to the individual, the basic intellect.  I dunno, really.  Some go to college to party hearty.  Others go, buckle down, and learn.  There are many who never stepped into the halls of higher learning and have gone on to spectacular success.  There are many who have, and have failed miserably.

A few years back my son told me I'm the smartest person he knows.  I don't agree with that but if that's what he wants to think, it's ok by me, haha!

But I took that as a huge compliment and I have treasured it.  It spurs me on to keep seeking, keep learning, to reach for the stars while I'm earthbound here below.  To never quit dreaming and thinking and pondering and searching.  No matter how far I reach, I never come to the end of the universe.