“You learn something new every day.” I’ve heard this too many times, and every time I hear it I get upset. It’s so obvious. Of course you learn something everyday.
Yesterday, I only had one class (COMM 114, we just listened to speeches). I thought that this would be a good chance to attempt to disprove this over-used phrase. I started my day by going to class and listened to speeches, but not paying too much attention- I don’t want to accidently learn something. I came home after class equally as brain dead as when I left to class. So far so good.
I spent the rest of the day doing nothing. I am now regretting how much homework I have to do today. Regardless, I managed to go the rest of the day without thinking about a thing. Using advanced deductive reasoning, you can conclude that I didn’t learn anything since I didn’t think about anything.
I went to bed reflecting upon the day. What a good day; I did nothing! Learned nothing! But a distressful realization reached me in my meditative state:
“I learned that you don’t learn something everyday.” At first it was just a thought, then I realized that I had learned something afterall.
Was my day a waste? I mean, I spent all day trying to prove that you can learn nothing. There was a lot I could have done that required learning; homework, movies, reading, etc.. I guess it wasn’t a waste because I learned something. I learned that you do learn something everyday.
In an attempt to justify myself wasting the day away, I meditated on the saying in question:
“You learn something new each day. Yesterday I learned that this isn’t true”
This is a bold statement. This says that I learned something (that that phrase isn’t true). “You learn something each day.” You learn something. Not me. This statement might still be true. It just depends on who you’re talking to. If you say this statement to someone in a coma, you’re lying. If you say this to a doctor, you’re telling the truth. At least I hope so.
There are so many meaningless sayings out there.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single
step. – Confucius
That’s very specific… why not say “ a really long journey” instead of “A journey of a thousand miles?” What do all of the journeys of differing lengths start with. And if I were to travel a thousand miles by foot, It would not be the first step that I would worry about. I would be more concerned about the billion of steps that followed.
“Early bird gets the worm.”
First off, I'm not a bird... not applicable to me! And, that’s what the early bird gets, what about the late risers? They saying implies that if you are the opposite of the early bird, you get the opposite of a worm to eat. Like a steak dinner? Pizza? Ice cream? All of which are better than a worm. Moral: “Early to bed early to rise, makes a man eat worms.”
I feel like this is all I have to learn from inspirational proverbs today. I wonder what I will learn tomorrow. Surely I learn something…just like everyday.
I'm glad you figured out you learned something during your day of nothing. I tried this one time going throughout the day, forcing my self to not pay attention or retain anything I heard. I made it the whole day, I got on facebook and posted the status, "The saying, "You learn something everyday," is false. I effectively learned nothing today."
ReplyDeleteYes it was a long status but it got a lot of my friends attention and I got multiple comments. Everyone agreed with me until the last post. Jon, a friend from work, stated I had learned something. You learned the saying was not true thus you learned something yesterday.
I scoffed for a bit and then got mad at myself for the waste of time. Oh, well there's a day you and I learned something from nothing.
I really like your entry. The first time I heard the saying "You learn something everyday" it really got me thinking. Once I got into high school I decided the statement was not true.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the order of your entry. I felt it really caught my attention and I wanted to keep reading. I found the way you voiced your opinion to be a little humorous but not too distracting. I think you did a really good job with this entry.
This entry really made me laugh. I think it's great that you tried to prove that quote wrong but really ended up learning something else in the process. I really do think people learn things every day and that is what helps us grow and become knowledgeable people. It doesn't have to be an important fact we learned in the classroom, either. It can be as simple as a little kid learning to look both ways before they cross the street or learning how people react in every day situations.
ReplyDelete