I have a lot of new ideas of entries for your reading pleasure, however am not really in a research kind of mood. So instead I'm going to talk about my super sweet sign language class that I started last night. I have wanted to learn sign language for a really long time and there was a community ed class that became available so I jumped all over it. While super geeked about this class and really excited to learn something new (I know, I like to learn, how laaame .) as the class grew closer I became increasingly more nervous that I wouldn't be able to actually learn and retain the information in the class.
As that class began and the teacher started talking I was listening like I had never listened before. Like this was my last chance to ever learn something again in my life. I started really thinking about the what-ifs. What if I love this, and then one day I can't move my fingers enough to sign? What if I can't retain any of this information and my goal of learning this new and exciting thing is totally lost? What a drag.
Well the class moved a long and turns out I really liked it. I wanted to know more instantly, and while my brain wasn't exactly the sponge it once was I learned a lot. I practiced when I left and even this morning on the way to work finger spelling random words. I can't remember the entire alphabet but I remember almost everything we learned last night. Its going to be tough, and I'm going to have to actually study which is something I NEVER did in high school or college. I gotta tell you it was WAY easy just having everything be easy and never studying, but for the first time for me learning will be hard. It will totally rewarding, as lame as that sounds, but its going to be damn hard.
Its sad that at 24 I already feel like I'm not capable of learning new things. If can't remember things I already know, how the crap am I supposed to learn something new? I'm not really sure, especially with the vast hole that my brain seems to be at times. I don't know. I'm thinking about taking small videos of myself after each class doing the signs that I learned so I can remember, because taking notes doesn't really help with sign language. I think that would be beneficial and I guess that's what its all about, learning to use things in new ways. It seems like more so than ever I'm under the "if you don't use it you lose it" mentality. Which is why I try to write by hand and type a lot everyday because I know that skills have been lost since my teenage years. Hopefully I can learn this language, remember it, and be able to put it to good use.
So as I embark on this new journey, new language, and new community, I'm really excited, but also terrified. We'll see how it goes!
