By Susan Govern
Some people claim life does come with second chances. In other words – you just might get lucky and get a do-over. Perhaps that does happen on rare occasions; only a few life situations come with a rerun button.
School is starting soon for most young people, and in some places it has already. Students are preparing to begin a new year and have stocked up on all the needed supplies (or will have them soon).
Parents are looking forward to getting back to a structured schedule, kids who may have not seen some of their friends during the summer are looking forward to catching up with them, and teachers are – well, let’s just say most teachers are as nervous as some of their students about the year ahead.
A new school year can be considered a do-over in life. Each summer vacation is like wiping a dry-erase board clean. A new school year = a fresh start.
Looking back to my school years I can see the times I would like to be able to say “Give me a do-over”.
I had a few good teachers along the way and they made learning interesting, even fun sometimes. I would enjoy a chance to go back and experience being in their classrooms again.
College was especially a time of learning that I enjoyed. Out of all the classes I was required to take, I can count on one hand the ones I would never want to revisit. Not bad if you think about it – says a lot about the good professors I had and how they out-numbered the others.
Yep, if I could get a do-over in my education it would definitely be during my college years. What exactly would I change, especially since I enjoyed it the first time around? I can think of one thing – my Major. I would probably go for a different degree.
Don’t get me wrong – I took Journalism because I wanted to be the reporter who covered the “human interest” stories. I wanted to write about the people of a community who came together to make a bad situation better. I wanted to write about someone who beat the odds and became someone to be admired. The stories that we call the “feel-good” stories – that was what I wanted to cover in my career.
I still love writing (as if you couldn’t have already guessed that), but in my second chance scenario I would follow a different path. I would change my Major to History.
Ok…right about now I can hear the collective groans of many of you reading this. You’re probably asking yourself why in the world would anyone want to go back to school just to study History especially since that’s got to be the most boring subject in school.
Boring to some, but fascinating to me. I’ve always had a love of History. I have been interested in the past on so many levels. I would love to learn more of the History of the ancient world and take a turn at going on an Archeological expedition in Italy or Greece.
How interesting it would be to study in depth about the leaders of great empires and learn about what they did to change the world. And learning the history of great inventors and great inventions – think about how interesting the story is of two brothers who had a bicycle shop and ended up being the first to ever fly (our own Ohio born Wright Brothers).
Yep, I’d take as many “history” related classes as I possibly could – Archeology, Anthropology, science classes that teach about inventions and their inventors, classes that would help me learn about art history, music history, the history of theater – the possibilities of interesting subjects are practically endless.
If I could get a second chance, have my do-over, create a rerun of a time of my life it certainly would involve school and learning.
And you know what – I can get that do-over. Want to know the secret of how? It’s pretty simple really – I can have my second chance by going into one special place and it’s not a school building. It’s called a Library – a good old fashioned Library.
In a Library with all those books I have the History of the World just waiting for me to explore. Oh sure, you probably say – just Google what you want to know, but somehow books make the learning more interesting – even a little more – magical.
So next time you see me turning into the drive of my local Library, smile and be happy for me because I’m getting my own little life do-over.
