Forever A Student

At the beginning of this year, I qualified as a Chartered Accountant and with that, I turned into a Professional. I was no longer a student.

After the initial joy of finally making it through this course, I felt a small voice in my head saying, “You are not a student anymore!”

“But I don’t want to stop being a student, ever!”, squeaked my voice again.

And well, I realised that I can be a student, forever. Only the perspectives change, and the end goal changes. But the learning? It never stops.

Of course, there is evident relief in not having to write an exam and resort to rote learning. And that is the best part.

Learning now will only be learning. Pure learning.

Among the many phrases and words that I use to describe myself, what stands out is “A student for life.”

That is what I am. That is what I will remain.

Why would we limit ourselves to learning for only the sake of scoring on a test or topping exams? Whilst those are important too, doesn’t learning go way beyond this?

We all are students of life, whether or not we realise this. It is a clichéd statement but so true when they say “Life is a teacher.”

I’d say it is the best teacher. It teaches you to adapt to situations, think on your toes, face adversities and challenges and a lot more.

There is so much that we do not know! There are so many new things that we are yet to make sense of. And that is when adapting the mindset of being a student for life comes in.

In this age, there is no dearth of resources to learn anything that we set our minds on. Pushing ourselves to learn something we never knew can open doors to something that we never imagined. Maybe a whole new career path!

What is important is the mindset that we adopt. Choosing to stay curious, introspecting on what we are lacking, and trying our hands at a new skill, can help us remain a student for life.

My favourite resource? I can never get tired of saying this, but it’s got to books. Timeless lessons from some of the most inspiring people are a treasure trove of knowledge.

For the entire duration of my CA course, I sure have learnt a lot about the core subjects. But there was this thirst within me to learn subjects beyond this. And so, one fine day, I sat down and prepared a “syllabus” for myself by choosing fields that I never learnt during my education.

Once that was done, I took my own sweet time to research books on each of these fields and chose a couple of them to read.

And that’s how I created my own “Self-Learning Hub.” There are no timelines; there are no assignments and exams. It’s learning and only learning.

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like:

I am hoping to make enough time and dive deep into reading these books and take forward my learning.

Learning beyond what we already know is always challenging. But the joy of knowing something new outweighs the challenges.

What are your views on this?

Until next time, stay blessed!