Education

I love to learn. For me, taking a class in an academic subject that I'm interested in is the ultimate in enjoyment.

Learning is a form of wealth that I value enormously. It doesn't matter whether the learning is formal or informal, academic or kinesthetic, aural or visual, for work or play; the more I learn the wealthier I become.

I can take my learning and apply it to whatever area of life I want. For example, when I was 46, I graduated from law school. I applied that to my entire career, giving over a career as a technical writer for a career as a lawyer, which I really enjoy. I happen to have an undergrad degree in a hard science, so I took and passed the patent bar, which means that I'm a patent lawyer. This is an area of the law that comes dangerously close to ... technical writing. Therefore, the 20+ years of experience I have as a writer (and a good writer, too) do indeed count in my current work. I do other things, too, but the tech writing background gives me an interesting perspective on how to write a patent application.

I try to learn something new every day. Today I learned that my computer is on the fritz. Not exactly what I wanted to learn, but there it is. Yesterday, I learned that I really miss my significant other's voice if he doesn't call me in the morning. Again, not what I really wanted to learn, but there it is. The day before, I learned that the NYS-45 form is due to the state by the end of this month (that's done). I learn odd little things like that sometimes; sometimes I learn bigger things. It doesn't matter; an active mind creates my own wealth.