The Pursuit of Lifelong Learning by Andrew
Andrewof Philadelphia's entry into Varsity Tutor's August 2017 scholarship contest
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The Pursuit of Lifelong Learning by Andrew - August 2017 Scholarship Essay
Learning is limitless. If I was a professor and could teach one course, I would teach English, a subject that will always reflect the realities of the world around us and teach us how to be better. In my senior year of high school, I took AP Literature with a woman named Nicole Jordan, who ended up becoming one of my favorite teachers to this day and one of my biggest role models in life. She brought her whole self to class everyday, embodying the spiritual idea of presence, and never holding herself above her students. In that classroom she was our equal; a fellow human being who represented the lifelong pursuit of learning in the fact that as much as we learned from her, she learned from us. She also preached the idea that education has no borders. Our education is bigger than the classroom and bigger than the skin that we live within. With every story read, she brought anecdotes from her life that prepared us for our futures, in college and beyond and stressed the gravity of humanity and it’s vital importance in our world. No matter what classification, social status, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or opinion divided you from another human being, you always had your humanity in common. She also imparted us with the ability to analyze text and our lives around us in an objective way that served that humanity. Because of her, I am able to have debates with people who possess opinions wildly different from my own and still maintain a level head. She revealed to me what it means to truly empathize and how to close that invisible gap between you and a stranger so that you hold yourself socially accountable at all times by treating the people around you as equals. To instill the levity of her lessons, she exemplified them by treating me and every single one of her other students as human.
At a difficult crossroads during the winter of that school year, my best friend struggled with the contemplation of taking her own life. Without intending to, she and I ended up alone with Mrs. Jordan and sharing her struggle. Instead of attempting to filter the validity of my friends' emotions, Mrs. Jordan shared her own similar struggles and found her immediate help that lead her on the road to recovery that I did not seem to be able to lead her down myself. She saved a life that day and reminded me yet again, of the humanity that exists within all of us. As she told my class, "Life never gets easier. You will ALWAYS be a hot mess. But every day, you can choose to become a better person than the day before. I'm still trying to get it right and I have a husband and kids."
Since leaving her classroom, I have made an effort to approach everything with that same humanity, never letting my intellectual mind weaken, or my connection to humanity fade because, in my mind, the world is my classroom and as long as I live, I never plan to stop growing from my experiences. If I could be even half of the English teacher that Nicole jJordan was, I would be a happy man. And I would hope to leave my students with the same philosophy that she instilled in me. Learning is limitless.