Correspondence: In search of higher understanding

University is a great avenue for education, however there are many other opportunities for learning, writes Althea Charles, a 28-year-old from Bridgetown, Barbados.

A while back I was having a conversation with a friend, who was telling me of his love for cooking.

He was beginning to despise the very thing he loves. He then explained that he is the cook for his household. Hmmmm, I thought.

It made me ask myself this question: What are the things in my life that have turned sour – the things I once thought of as sweet? One thing I identified was the passion for learning and discovery.

I love learning – all forms of learning, however while I was doing my undergraduate degree at university it caused me to begin to despise the learning process.

My university experience did something that turned sour the learning and discovery which I had once thought of as sweet.  The thought of writing another examination was just not appealing to me.

This is very significant because I’ve since realised that many people somewhere along their journey begin to despise the very things they once loved.

I’ve realised that it is critical that we identify the things that extinguish the fire inside.  Then we will find out that the fire will ignite again.

When something or someone in my life moves from sweet to sour, I do not lament anymore.I deal with the problem from the point of view of the vehicle that is responsible.

It’s like getting a headache because of eating cheese and then having to take pain killers. The vehicle would be the cheese. If I stop eating cheese, the problem of the headache would be automatically solved.

We need to be very careful about the things that we attach to us along the way. We need to first count the cost of the weight of these things before we become attached. The very thing we attach ourselves to today may become a burden so heavy tomorrow that it pulls us down from the ladder of our dreams.

In the case of my university education, I had to come to realise that it is my method of learning that was very different from the method of the university I attended.

I do not like to just regurgitate information. I see little use in it. I believe in developing my critical thinking skills and in order to do this I must not merely sit in a lecture and digest everything that is said.

I must dissect the information and it must make sense. I love understanding. Understanding allows me to attempt a question from any corner and not just in the way it was shown to me.

The university is a great avenue for my education, however there are many other avenues that lead to a wonderful and continuous life of learning.

Since this understanding befell me I have enrolled and completed a program at another university and will continue to pursue my education, but I will not allow that to get in my way of learning.

I would say that universities are great institutions of higher knowledge and I am ultimately a person seeking higher understanding.