learning

summer has been a blur of lunches outside, days by the lake, happy hour on patios, working sometimes, classes sometimes, being inside as little as possible.

i finished three summer institute classes - intro to gis (geographic information systems), how to make cool maps of data; ethics of vaccines, when can we make choices for the public and when is it appropriate to trust the public to make the right decisions; and planning for urgent threats, having a plan for when basically everything could go wrong in a disaster situation.

i love this. this time of learning and exploring. this time when i soak it all in and gobble it all up. this time when everyone around me is invested in their education and all we want to do is know everything and see everything and experience everything. i'd forgotten how much i love learning and being surrounded by people who also love learning - especially when they want to learn the same things and we all learn together in the same direction.

but i also love being around people who are learning in different ways. i love being around people who aren't sure and their exploring is different. like people who have just moved home or have just started something new or are trying to figure out how to spend the rest of their days here. i love getting coffee and catching up with these people, wishing there was more time to wander and explore with these people, wishing i could learn alongside these people. realizing how much of the same ground you've covered with these people. and seeing the beautiful, tangible, glowing things they bring to the friendship - especially when what they're learning is in a different direction.

there's something brilliant and lovely when there are many methods of learning and many ways of sharing it with others. like time, or notes, or stories, or pictures, or over coffee.