Learning Never Stops Unless You Let It

Thoughts on Kimani Maruge, Moving, Changing Jobs, Teaching, and a man named Phil Grimes

Routines, Routines, Routines

A certain kind of absent-mindedness runs in my family. One of my fondest memories is of my Dad leaving for work, and repeatedly popping back in the doorway to grab the car keys, then his wallet, then his packed lunch. The older I get, the more routines I find myself accruing. Now, I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, but what I do know is that if I didn’t have my three-point check (patting my left, right and back pockets to check for keys, cell-phone and wallet respectively), I would most certainly forget said objects everyday. Routines protect me from myself, but can they also signify the end of a learning process? 

Kimani Maruge

The other day I discovered the story of Kimani Maruge, a Kenyan man who, at 85 years old, became the oldest person to start primary school. This isn’t a post about Maruge, he has an awesome movie about him that tells his story really well, but it’s a post about how Maruge reminded me of a man named Phil Grimes, and how Phil has been an inspiration during a time of a pretty decent amount of change in my life.

Kimani Maruge became a first-grader at age 84. The Google doodle shows him in his school uniform.

Phil Grimes

Phil was the partner of my then fiance’s grandmother, and I first met him at Thanksgiving dinner. I was 29 at at the time, he was 91. I’ll never forget at the end of the night, Phil effortlessly told one of the most complex jokes I’ve ever heard, and can not repeat for lack of trying because it involves a lot of rhyming and an incredible memory. What struck me most about Phil wasn’t his immense accomplishments, which he had, (he was a decorated World War II serviceman, CEO of a successful sandpaper company, former resident of over twenty countries), it wasn’t these things that stopped me in my tracks when I met him that night. It was the smallest thing, really. In the middle of dinner I said I had an idea for a novel and he said, “That’s great, email me what you’re thinking. I’d love to hear about it.”

He wanted me to email him. Now, when I email or text my 57 year old father (re: forgetting his wallet), I usually get a response that is non-sensical or one word long (“K”). Phil wanted me to email him and it was amazing. It didn’t surprise me to also find out that Phil had started a new company helping to solve sewage and flooding problems the year before, at the age of 80. Like Kimani Maruge, Phil never stopped learning.

Phil and his son John in front of their patented Weedo boat.

Moving

After five years of living in the same place, my wife and I made the leap and moved into a new place. Now, that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is. It had taken us me years to learn and adapt to living together, purely in the details of things. Leaving clothes beside the bed, flicking toothpaste spit onto the mirror when I brush my teeth, taking out the recycling, flushing the toilet, you know, those types of things. It had taken years (years!) for me to train myself out of these bad habits, and they were intrinsically connected to where I was. Now we were moving places! Safe to say I drove her crazy in our first month at our new place as I tried to adjust. It takes people an average of three months to develop a new habit, so, unfortunately for my wife, I’m still on my way.

Changing Jobs

I wrote a bit ago about this experience, and it has been an incredible experience. That said, wow there has been a lot to learn! Ever use Asana before? How ‘bout Slack? I haven’t! Do you know what ADE, SDR, and OKR stand for? Google it, I had to. Starting my new role at Design Cofounders and The Writing Project was a big change because it was the first time, in over ten years, that I haven’t been waking up and going to work at a school. I had become, completely against my nature, a morning person. The reason is simple: if you’re a teacher and you’re a few minutes late for work, it’s a big deal. In the office at DC, things are a little different. For the first week I spent each morning in the dark, arriving at 8:15am every day. Safe to say this was a habit I was happy to break.

Teaching

Sometimes students say things that you can never forget. They play back in your head over and over, like a soundtrack to your teacherly conscience. One such comment was a simple but on-the-money knock on my classes that year, “I like your lessons but they are all the same”, was the comment. Didn’t take me long to realize that it was true. I had gotten comfortable in my style, how I approached my lesson planning, and I wasn’t challenging myself. It had almost gotten mechanical, down to the minute, without me even noticing! Teaching can be stressful, and my reliance on that certain style of class had become a crutch out of fear of failure. The change didn’t come overnight, but that comment ended up propelling me into new ideas, and a eventually a new career that I would have never considered otherwise.

How Does This All Connect?

As I’m getting older, the more enticing routines seem to be to me. Life can get pretty crazy and unpredictable, so there’s a growing comfort in things that you can expect to be where they should be. Routines bring order to the chaos, right? The danger, though, is that I’ve found these same routines can be limiting, often stifling unknown possibilities when they turn into a sedimented mindset. Something which can happen from time to time until you are suddenly pulled out of it.

Stay foolish, be passionately curious, have an innovator’s mindset, say what you want, but the truth is that learning never stops unless you let it.