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ed·u·ca·tion
–noun
1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life..
2. a degree, level, or kind of schooling.

I come from a family of doctors and lawyers so naturally the first word that comes to mind for E was Education. As soon as I started thinking about who I knew that was an expert on education I knew of course I’d ask my blogging friend who is currently in law school. I stumbled across her blog pretty close to the time that she was first starting law school and I have been a consistent reader since.

This guest post was written by Janet Wallace, a twentysomething law student with a love of cupcakes and peppermint. Janet can be found blogging at Slice of Pink.

My name is Janet Wallace and I am a schoolaholic. 

I will turn thirty during my last year of law school. This means that I will have spent the majority of my twenties in school. I took a few years off between earning my bachelor’s degree and entering law school but, even then, I was a high school teacher. So technically, if you are counting, I’ve been in a classroom for twenty-five years straight. 

I’ve learned about a lot of things during my formal education–statistics, gothic cathedrals, osmosis, federalism–but, if truth be told, I don’t use any of this information on a daily basis. I don’t break out my calculator at the grocery store to figure out the area of a frozen pizza or sit at home considering archetypal patterns in poetry.  Occasionally, when I am visiting an art museum or watching a television game show, my degree in Art History serves me well; but, for the most part, knowing gobs of information about French Impressionism isn’t very practical in real life.  

So, why then, you ask, would I choose to spend $150,000 and the entirety of my twenties sitting in a classroom? 

There are the obvious reasons: all of this schooling will get me a better job, more money, nicer shoes. There is definitely that–and for a lot of people, that is enough. 

For me, though, education is a drug.  It is a powerfully addictive stimulant. Every day, I ride my bicycle down to campus to learn something new–sometimes something that I didn’t even realize existed–and it envelops me and makes me crave more.  

Lately, I’ve been studying the law. My classmates, a competitive and eager bunch, are ready to finish up with their educations and enter the job market as soon as possible. Me? I’m not so sure. It seems I have a long list of things I’d  still like to learn–Spanish, library science, how to make the perfect soufflé.

Sometimes I think of all the things I know these day–things that were completely unfathomable to my teenage mind–and I realize how fortunate I am to be able to spend my twenties learning. But, of course, that thought has a sister: although I’ve spent the last twenty-five years in a classroom, the things I know are only a tiny glint of ice in a vast tundra of the incomprehensible.  In the grand scheme of things, my education really hasn’t taught me much at all, but it sure has given me an unquenchable thirst for some more of it. I’m totally hooked.

The good news is, we don’t need some classroom in a fancy institution to get an education.  All we need is a hunger for knowledge and, more importantly, the resolve to satisfy that hunger.  There is such a wondrous world of information available to us, things unexpected and astounding, and we owe it to ourselves, to our children and grandchildren, and to each other, to expand our horizons and deepen our character.  Make it a point to learn something new every day this month and I predict you’ll get addicted, too. It’s one hard habit to break.  

I am also schoolaholic. I will most likely be starting on the next step in my education in the next year. I found that people are usually one end of the spectrum or the other on this topic – there are schoolaholics and school of life folks. My family and my upbringing have pointed me towards the schoolaholic side. Where do you stand on the topic of education?

If you’ve missed any of the other ABCs you can find them here.