NaBloPoMo 2015: Day 5 "Edumacation"

If you don't already know about Coursera.org, let me just enlighten you: there exists this magical website where anyone can sign up and take university level courses FOR FREE.

It's good quality instruction, and I've turned into a serial course-taker! Unfortunately, because there's no penalty for not finishing, and because it's up to each student to decide their level of participation, I have also turned into a serial course-slacker. I've taken courses on Chinese, entrepreneurship, economics, and more, but I never finished any of them.

So with my handy "30 Before 30" list as motivation, I signed up for 2 new courses in September, determined to see at least one of them thru to the end.

And I did!! I finished both courses. Go meeee!

The first class was very informative and helpful to this business-dumb arts major, and the second was geared too much towards university 20-somethings to be totally appropriate, but it had some good reminders.

I didn't manage to hit all the deadlines within the courses, which resulted in a lower "grade" but I just focused on actually crossing the finish line, and didn't worry at all about grading. That said, I still managed to pull off As in both of them! Overachiever me was very happily surprised.

My grandmother was taking university classes even in her sixties; I definitely want to follow in her footsteps and continue my education for the rest of my life. Happily, I can do that on my own terms, in my own time, for free! There's a limited number of classes available on Coursera, so here's hoping that sites like it will only keep expanding their online options for the future.

We haven't reached the limits of the human brain - maybe there is no limit! It feels socially irresponsible to not strive for more education. And actually, most of this challenge was about educating myself in one way or another - so this particular list item is fairly representative of my 30th birthday goals in general. ^^

Happy studying,

Anna

p.s. MY SISTER IS HEREEEE!! IN GWANGJU!!!

MANY EXCITE.

SUCH HAPPY.

I'm going to cut myself a little slack on "NO" while she's here, just to ensure that she has the best time possible. ^^ But I did say NO to taxis all day, NO to getting a delicious pretzel while shopping downtown and NO to buying anything for myself (couldn't resist a gift for my hubby and bestie, tho...).