As I get older, it seems harder and harder to convince myself to agree to anything that even remotely looks like formal education. If it’s got a test or book learning of any kind, my brain cringes. And yet, I greatly admire those who are older and seek to learn new things with a thirsty vengeance that never says, “I know it all already.” Perhaps because they are older, they value the learning with a depth no teenager can match.
Anyway, I try to keep this in mind so that when my husband comes to me with a new learning opportunity—and he inevitably will because he’s an insatiable learner—I can push past the “ugh, classroom” reaction and say “yes” to experiences I will never regret.
The most recent of these opportunities came in the form of a sailing class. Now keep in mind I’ve attempted a number of boat scenes in my writing and I knew actual experience on a boat would trump anything I could read in a book.
My husband came to me and asked, “What do you think about a sailing course instead of a beach vacation this year?”
He’s usually a great salesman but somehow I think he missed the mark on that one.
Anyway, in spite of that rough start, he convinced me. So this last July we spent seven days living and learning on a 43’ sail boat. And there are so many cool, strange, and wonderful things I learned that I look forward to sharing with you. Boating, and sailing in particular, is a whole world unto itself.
To wrap up today, I’ll pick one thing that encouraged me about the world at large. There are right-of-way rules just like what we find when driving but imagine, these right-of-way rules encompass all nations that touch the ocean and some that don’t but have large waterways. Admittedly, there are two systems depending on where you’re at in the world, but at one point in time, those rules were agreed upon by dozens of nations and are used for barges, speed boats, sail boats—you name it—today.
How cool is that?!
Blessings,
Jennifer
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way cool!! Grandma White said, “when you stop learning, you should be dead!” Guess this would give her pleasure to know a great-grand is living by this idea!!
Ha! I love that saying. We’re alive and we’re learning =)
Sounds like such a fun vacation! I wouldn’t mind learning to sail, but I get serious motion sickness (can’t even look at a fish tank without getting nauseous), so I’ll have to stick to reading about it. Which is probably why I love the Tide Child series so much; the thrill of it without the nasty side effects. But it’s so much fun to incorporate something you know something about into your writing. Now I’m really looking forward to your next adventure!
Oh no! Motion sickness 😑 Thankfully I didn’t deal with that but one of the other students did. She ended up taking medicine for it and her days went pretty well.
It’s been fun reading the Tide Child books while learning to sail. I still find some of it doesn’t make sense to me but that’s partly because I’m such a visual person. Many times while reading I just accept that something works and keep reading.
Hopefully the next adventure makes sense! Since I’m writing them as flash fiction, there aren’t a lot of words to describe things with!
I took sailing lessons as a teenager, but only in the small one-person boats. I really enjoyed sailing, and I’m sure I would have loved to continue with the larger sailboats! Sounds like quite the adventure! 🙂
We saw some of the one person boats out there! They looked like a lot of fun although we also saw one flip and the guy ended up sitting on the hull waiting for someone to come help him.
Rules and choices, hum, be wise. What a great adventure and time to learn.
It was definitely an adventure for this Colorado born girl!!