03Jan2021

We’ve finally made it. 2020 is in the past and 2021 is here and it couldn’t come sooner. I’m sure we’re all glad it’s behind us and hopefully the future is bright and prosperous.

One thing 2020 was good for, in my case, was I was able to spend a lot more time learning things I wanted to learn as well as save money. I learned quite a bit about personal finance, economics, federal and state law, government (dis)function, and a few other things. I paid off my student loans, my car, and managed to save a little money away for a rainy day. On top of that, I was even able to spend a little money on leisurely things, including many books.

While my year was busy as I was still actively working, my off time wasn’t spent doing things I’d done in previous years. I tried to spend more time reading and learning. While I learned a lot about some subjects, I didn’t learn as much as I would’ve liked to on others but luckily, I still have a lifetime ahead of me to learn. I’ve noticed that since I’ve been out of school for a few years now, I’ve found an internal motivation and desire to learn but not typically about classical school subjects like math or biology. I have to push myself to study those. Rather, I have a desire to learn things like personal finance, handiness (yes, I stole that from the Sims), history, literature, writing, and even learn a bit about computers. I’m more motivated to learn topics such as these because they have a direct impact on my life, I’m going to use them everyday whether in practice or conversation, and they are topics I find a genuine interest in.

School unfortunately teaches a plethora of subjects that are only useful to the people who go into the line of work dealing with that subject. For example, graphing an algebra equation on a vertical and horizontal plane has never come up in my job and was useless information to me, but thank God school taught me that and not something fuckin’ stupid like how to do my taxes or fix a leaky faucet…

I have this nagging feeling that I need to further educate myself and provide myself with a more well-rounded and practical education. I will always spend lots of time reading books and receiving an education that way, but there are more practical useful subjects that every man or woman planning to be self-sufficient must be proficient at and I will be educating myself on those in the future. I will always feel I need to be more educated than I am. I must never be content with myself or else I’ll stop striving to improve.

What did you do with your time in 2020? Did you make use of the time you had or did you squander it? What’s the most useful lesson the year taught you?