Learning is a continuous process in a human life, it is one of the most constant phase every human must pass through and adapt to, when I say "constant" I meant the learning phase never ends. Often times, it is said that learning can only be achieved when a human being is willing to learn but that is not entirely true. There are some things in life we need to focus on to learn and this is mostly about matters of academics. Having to pass through the formal process of learning which requires the willingness of a human to study the material provided in order to be enlightened.
But then, there are somethings we learn in life through either informal education, these things we never truly show the willingness to know it but we know it anyway. That is how complex the life is, sometimes it forces us to learn somethings for the sake of our own survival. Imagine a non athletic person being chased by a wild animal, such person might not be a runner but at that moment he/she will manifest the ability and might even run faster than any athlete. You would wonder how such person manage to learn how to run but it is nothing extraordinary, that is just a person trying his/her best to survive.
Humans primary objective behind every act either selfless or selfish it is always bound to the desire to survive, in most cases, the ability of every human to survive is based on the amount of knowledge and skill they possess and the ability of such person to apply the knowledge to appropriate and immediate situation at hand. All through the socialisation process, it is a race of survival but as humans grow and survive hurdles, so does our experience grow and this factor improves our knowledge and application of wisdom.
In this modern age every human is expected to have a certain level of education, which can be acquired through a structured academic institution built in place to impact knowledge into pupils and adults all through their academic pursuits. The process is called formal education also known as acquisition of knowledge and skills by books, which will make you book smart.
Most of the skills applied during the olding days were mostly learnt from the street based on experience, which is a product of informal education, acquisition of the street knowledge makes you street smart, though based on my experience it is quite difficult to split between informal education (street knowledge) and formal education (book knowledge) when an individual takes an action that is based on both street and book knowledge
I guess it is tied to the survival instinct of humans to come up with ideas that will aid their survival on the long run, instinct is a natural behaviour pattern or impulse that is built in every human, it is mostly displayed when an individual faces a problem-solution event.
One major lesson learnt about life but not in school? Life is filled of lesson, it is the only institution that teaches lessons for free and forcefully. Speaking of just one major lesson among the many lessons I have learnt in life, makes it hard for me to know which one to pick. Picking randomly, if there was one lesson that reshaped my life and mentality at a very young age, it will be what about to talk about.
About 9 years ago, I was doing my ciwes at Lagos traffic radio. I worked in the newsroom and most times before my shift ends, it is usually late. My most preferred route to my house is the Ojota axis, a familiar place to those that lived/lives in Lagos. In the evening this specific area is usually busy which kind of adds to the traffic. I love making use of the pedestrian bridge just to protect myself from getting knocked out by a bike.
On this specific day, I was a little late than usual but I still wanted to use the pedestrian bridge, on getting there, I noticed every angle of the pedestrian bridge was filled with people and Lanterns. Not only that, these people had their mats spread out, some with stoves and the children playing around on the bridge while some of the adult were playing board games. It was like a whole community was living on that pedestrian bridge. There was just a tiny line in the middle these people left for pedestrians to pass through.
As I walked through these people I could notice how happy they were despite being in that kind of environment. Categorically they were homeless people but they have made the bridge their home at night, you can only see them at that spot at night, in the morning the whole place is cleared up like they were never there. That is just how far humans will go to survive.
In those days, I was the kind of person to complain about everything going on in my life, always feeling like I deserve more. Seeing those people I learnt that despite my situation I was still lucky. The image of these people never left my memory till today, it serves as a reminder for me to always find reasons to be appreciative of the life I'm given no matter what I'm going through.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Not in school in hive learners community.
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