How the Pandemic Helped Me Find my Passion for Learning

The pandemic has changed the world in ways that none of us ever could have predicted. Two years ago, how many of us thought that we would be able to do our jobs from home? How many of thought our children would be learning calculus virtually? How many of us though we would be attending our favourite yoga class through Zoom?

I don’t believe many, if any, of us could honestly answer any of those questions with a “I knew this would happen”, or a “I predicted it". And while many of us, myself included, have suffered immensely from the isolation, loss, and anxiety the pandemic has created in our lives, there have been some positives that have come out of how the world is changing. These come in the form of opportunities that didn’t exist two years ago. For me, this is where I have found my passion for learning.

Let’s dive into this a bit further. The pandemic has exponentially diversified learning opportunities for me. Before the pandemic, the learning opportunities I could take on outside of work were limited. I am now taking as many virtual learning opportunities as I can, when they come my way.

1. I am taking online meditation and yoga classes, and am learning to tap into my more spiritual side.
2. I used to never go to church, but with church being held virtually, I now attend every Sunday, and am starting to grow in my faith.
3. I have joined a virtual book club with my many of friends, and enjoy learning about new perspectives on the same book. This is helping me to think about different perspectives in other situations in my life as well.
4. I have enrolled in virtual seminars and lectures on topics not directly related to my career, but in which I am interested in learning more. Some of these topics include: social impacts of the pandemic, self-care, climate change, financial planning, leadership, dog psychology, recognizing and challenging bias, and social media marketing. This diversity of learning is helping me to see new areas in my life in which I want to further explore and grow.
5. I have started to see a therapist on a regular basis, because as I was exploring new parts of the world and learning new things, I was starting to seek a deeper understanding about parts of myself. This has been incredibly beneficial for me to learn why I am the way I am.
6. I find myself listening to audiobooks and podcasts focused on areas in my life where I truly want to learn and improve. Some of these topics include leadership, vulnerability, resilience, and integrity. This is something I am finding really valuable, because although I don’t really consider myself to be a leader, I am starting to find coworkers, friends, and family regularly looking to me for advice in a leadership capacity. If that’s a role that I am going to evolve into filling, I want to be authentic and well-educated on the qualities that make a successful leader.
7. I joined a service organization in my community, and am enjoying meeting with them virtually every week to learn about how we are supporting the community during these challenging times. Helping people is always a good way to learn about yourself. This has also allowed for me to foster new relationships and make friends with more people in my community.
8. I enrolled in a three month membership with a language learning app, to start learning Spanish. This is something I have always wanted to do, but never gave myself the opportunity because I "didn't have time". The pandemic has given me more spare time, so I thought "now is my chance".

All of these experiences are helping me to learn and grow. In fact, it is with the abundance of opportunities, that I have found my love for learning just for the sake of learning. I love going into a virtual course or seminar, and acknowledging that what I am about to hear or see is going to be new information to me, but that there is a strong chance that it will help me become a better person, if I allow it to do so.

In a perfect world, I would monetize learning by becoming a professional learner. I would continue to seek out new learning opportunities and experiences, and translate what I learning into a valuable product, such as a book, podcast, blog, or even my own course on learning. With my Vocal+ account, I have been inspired to take what I am learning, put a creative twist on it, and share it with the world. I am experimenting with different writing styles and themes, but my intention is always to leave my readers having learned something, and maybe even having grown.

After having spent the last year with unlimited learning opportunities available to me, there are many reasons why I believe I felt my pre-pandemic learning opportunities were limited. These take the form of both perceived and actual barriers.

1. The first being time. There was often a direct time conflict between when I was done work, and when different events would start. For example, my favourite yoga class started at 6 pm, but I was done work at 5:30 pm. By the time I drove home, ate, and drove to the yoga studio, I was always really late. I didn’t make me feel good to be running into the yoga class late all the time, because it created a disruption for the others in the class and I felt guilty. Having a virtual option available has allowed for me to join the yoga class right after work. Saving on commute time has been a wonderful gift back into my day, that I have been able to reinvest back into myself, and into learning and growing.
2. The second reason is that in removing distance as a barrier, the diversity in learning opportunities has grown immensely. When you are able to join a course or seminar that’s taking place in a different country, or even on the other side of the world, you are learning from people who are, in someway, different from you. For example, I did a virtual course on financial planning, and didn’t realize until it started that it was in a different country. While the financial structures were not exactly the same between the country where the course was being offered and where I live, the basic concepts that I learned were universal. Furthermore, during the Q&A, people were asking questions that I had never thought of, or been exposed to in the circle of people I interact with on a day-to-day basis. The diversity in thoughts, beliefs, values, and experiences that I have been experiencing, has allowed me to learn and grow beyond the previous limits that I had unintentionally imposed on myself.
3. The third reason is that I wasn’t really paying attention, or looking for new learning opportunities. I thought I was pretty content with my life: getting up, going to work, coming home, and relaxing in front of the TV for the rest of the night. Repeat the next day, and the day of that. Always the same. I never even thought I needed to do anymore learning. I think this was in part, because I didn’t think I had the time. I also think this was because, as a recent college graduate, I associated learning with stress, exams, and anxiety. I had just crossed that hurdle in my life, and wasn’t anxious to go back there again any time soon. I also thought that learning needed to be formal, and so didn’t actively seek it. However, what the pandemic has helped me to find, is many informal learning opportunities, which have challenged my belief that there is only one way to learn, and it has to be difficult, or even unenjoyable, for it to be valuable. Seminars and lectures, don’t come with hours of studying, or huge tuition fees. In fact, many of them are free. Podcasts and audiobooks can be listened to, even when I am cleaning my house, or going for a walk. Joining a service organization, has helped me to start to learn about the value in helping others, and giving back, all through meeting new people and learning about their experiences. The best part of all of this, is that I enjoy it. I am passionate about it. I am excited about it.

The point that I am trying to make is that learning isn’t something that needs to be formal and structured. It isn’t something that we need to commute across towns, countries, or the world to accomplish. It isn’t something that we need to sacrifice years of our lives, and thousands of dollars, in order to achieve. Learning isn't a burden, it is a gift.

Learning can be found in the even smallest moments. Learning is the words in an audiobook or podcast that really resonate with you. Learning is the questions you and your therapist are working on together. Learning is putting yourself into new situations, with the sole purpose of wanting to learn more about a specific topic, area, concept, or even yourself. What the pandemic has done for me, is challenge the barriers I thought I had in my life. The ones that I thought were preventing me from becoming the best version of myself. Through this journey, I have started to feel fulfilled in aspects of my life that I didn’t even know I needed.

My hope for the world is that, when the pandemic is over, the virtual learning opportunities stay. Imagine a world where people could have more opportunities to learn and grow. Imagine what the world would look like if people could pursue diverse learning experiences, without compromising their lifestyles. Imagine how the world would grow.

Thank you for reading my article! If you enjoyed it, please like it and share it with your friends!