LEARNING TO LEARN: REFLECTIONS ON ADAPTING TO CHALLENGING TIMES
KEN HUNT ‘09 College
Learning is a funny thing. Real learning, like real love, tends to happen to you precisely when you aren’t expecting it. Like real love, sometimes you don’t notice it at first. Other times you think that you’re learning, or have learned something, only to discover that you were woefully mistaken; again, thinking you’ve fallen in love can be the same. While a good education is vital, the world is no classroom.
We’ve all been subjected to unprecedented strictures and stresses since the beginning of 2020. As time goes by, formal platitudes that were once reassuring, even comforting, such as “in these difficult times…” have lost their lustre. In truth, we were all uncertain and frightened at first, but we’re all human. We adapt. We also learn, which isn’t the same as adapting, but it can feel just as uncomfortable. As the pandemic unfolded, I learned some things about myself. I learned that I can be stubborn and proud and react badly to change as a result. I learned that I had been avoiding pragmatically addressing the stresses I’d been dealing with since finishing my MA. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I needed a break. I had blinders on: finish the
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BAs, finish the MA, finish the Ph.D. I ignored my health. I hid insomnia, panic attacks, nervous ticks, and impulses as best I could. It took me a while to realize that everyone else wasn’t living the way I was; that healthy and adjusted people didn’t have to deal with the things I was dealing with. I was able to learn how to learn and to act pragmatically, because of the support given by my family and my friends. I remain grateful to all who have helped me. Thanks to the internet, I’ve connected and reconnected with Rundle classmates, all of whom have gone on to succeed at the natural talents and inclinations that their time at Rundle helped them reveal and hone. I can safely say that my self-awareness would not be as developed as it is had I not
2021 ASCENT MAGAZINE | RUNDLE COLLEGE SOCIETY ALUMNI
attended Rundle. I still think back to what my Rundle teachers said to me. Their words resonate. After graduating in 2009, I went on to study at the University of Calgary, where I met my partner of 11 years, Nicole. Like real learning, falling in love with her was totally unexpected. Without her patience, compassion, and honesty, it may have taken me a lot longer to learn many vital things about myself. I suspect she would say something similar about being with me, but I can’t speak for her. I spent two years apart from Nicole while I wrote my MA at Concordia University in Montreal. Like my parents who spent time apart during my father’s pursuit of his Ph.D. at Cambridge, Nicole and I endured this time apart. During this period, I finished writing one book of poetry
