A friend of mine is trying to decide whether to go to college (and if so, when and where).

She’s already done a couple of semesters, but took some time off after a traumatic event. Now what?

A decision like this is very difficult because the stakes are high. There is a ton of available information to explore, yet there is not enough information to make the choice obvious. There is no way to be sure you’re making the right decision, just a decision.

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Even as a college student, the only practical career I could visualize for myself was to be a teacher.

I didn’t know much about other careers, and my obsession with music precluded my pursuit of even learning about them. So when I went to college, it was to study music education — a worthy compromise.

I never could have imagined where I’d end up. After all, when I was a kid, there was no Internet.

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Healthy, confident learners experience challenge as opportunity.

When faced with new information or a new skill, they lean into the pursuit of mastery. They ask questions and ask for help. They practice and study on their own and with others. Every retreat is followed by a fresh advance. They visualize their ultimate success and then, as a result of taking the necessary steps to get there, arrive. They ace the test, win the bake off, or join the ranks of the potty-trained.

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Recently, I’ve gotten back into learning French.

My favorite language-learning tool is Clozemaster, a cleverly designed program built on Tatoeba’s database of sentences and translations. You listen to the sentence, try to figure out what it is saying, and fill in the missing word.

Filling in the word may seem to be the focus of the exercise, but it’s not, really.

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As the oldest of four children, there were two rare luxuries that I did not take for granted growing up: dining out and flying in planes.

Consequently, as an adult, I still tend to relish an opportunity for either of these experiences, even though they are often more quotidian than magical. But now that both restaurant meals and air travel have been eliminated from my life during the pandemic, I find myself dreaming of them just as I did as a child.

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