A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.

I was in the Physical Science review room the other day (kind of my second home for the next couple weeks of the semester) and talking with a TA. Somehow we went from polar molecules to visiting Africa. We both want to go sometime. We talked about how physical science information isn't necessarily relevant to fulfilling my goals in life, but why it's so worthwhile to learn anyway. The reasons are many, but here is one:

Sometimes education isn't about the facts you learn or even the skills gained from learning, but what you become as you master those facts. It's about changing as a person, so that you can achieve your goals better. Some recent tutorials I've had outside the classroom and textbook have been:

• Learning to choose between good, better, and best (for example giving up a Moab trip this Saturday to take a test!).
• Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew, and you just need to chew it. And chew it well.
• You can do more than you think you can.
• Most of the time you are not as prepared as you thought you were, prepare more.
• Being determined (not brilliant) takes you far (but it sure would be nice to be brilliant).
  
• Running can keep you sane.

I suppose these are just life lessons that I could have learned if I was a high school drop out, but it seems to me that education is an ideal way to put yourself through the rigor that learning these lessons requires.

Perhaps the lesson I've learned many times, and for which I am most grateful, is that education brings you closer to God. If you try your absolute best, and then trust in God, everything works out. Is it a coincidence that those with more education participate more in religious activity?

And from the great brilliant scientist himself,
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
- Albert Einstein

We can make a difference.

Faith