Learning What You Like to Learn is Still Learning

The title of this blog post is quite self-explanatory, but it’s often overlooked. In fact, it’s most often overlooked when we are lost, undecided or doubtful about the path we’re taking in life. But realizing that learning what you like to learn (and what you don’t like to learn) is still learning has helped me feel reassured that I’m on the right path. I decided to write this post to reflect back on some stressful times in my life and how I moved forward. I hope my experience can help others deal with similar problems that they’re facing.

Let me illustrate the idea in the title with a personal example. When I was finishing high school, I had to make a decision about where and what to study in university. I was always intrigued by the natural sciences (specifically biology and chemistry), but I also applied to computer science programs because of my admiration for math.

And that’s pretty much when things went downhill. I fought with myself everyday about which direction to go in, and I was extremely fearful of how difficult and time-consuming it would be to switch programs after the fact. On a whim (quite literally, I still cannot explain this decision to this day), I decided to study computer science at the University of Waterloo.

The first semester was terrible. Not only was I homesick, but I could not find the motivation to appreciate the beauty of math and computer science. That was because half of my mind was occupied with the “what if” scenario - what if I went to a school near home to study life sciences?

But the second semester of university went a little better. I started to realize that this time I was spending was not really wasted. I was learning about what I liked to learn. If I had been studying a different subject in a different university, I probably would have been bothered by the fact that I could have been studying computer science instead! This is when I started to become more appreciative of my current position. I started to become at peace with my decision because I knew that there would always be new opportunities in the future, if I wanted to pursue them. And that I would only ruin my chance at those opportunities by not making the most of my current venture.

Nowadays, I don’t really think about the “what if”s because I’ve developed such a deep passion for math and computer science that I couldn’t see myself being in a different field. But more importantly, I know that pondering about the other scenarios is counter-productive. Instead, I’m glad that I took the time to figure out how I wanted to move forward rather than being hasty with my decision. And even if I decide to change course (no pun intended) in the future, I know this time was time well-spent because I never stopped learning. At the least, I learned what I like to learn, and that’s still learning.