Keeping the Sabbath
I never thought much about keeping the Sabbath until high school. While I went to church, and enjoyed two large meals with my family (breakfast and dinner), I didn’t necessarily seek ways to rest. In fact, I remember studying for AP exams in the afternoon.
But at some point, I had two friends who shared how they didn’t study on Sunday. The idea was quite foreign to me, and I was concerned that if I took a day off every week, I would never be able to get everything done. Nonetheless, I decided I should.
Pick Something New
Early this summer, one of my new Maryland friends introduced me to the world of guitars. Yes, I knew what a guitar was before… but no one had ever showed me the basics: This is a string, and that’s a fret. Here’s a chord, and you can play.
After a few weeks of practicing on my friend’s guitar, I bought my own acoustic — a Seagull S6 “Original” — so that I can continue to learn and play back at school. At first, I was intimidated by the guitar; I wanted to jump in and play something impressive and difficult, but that’s impossible without understanding the basics. Eventually, I realized I would be wiser (and learn faster) to begin at the beginning, learn two chords, and go from there.
Not for Sale
Many glorious things in life are free, and it is no coincidence that none of them have obnoxious labels with all capital letters. Take a flower, for instance; stop and smell it, and remember the words of Chesterton.
Nearly all the best and most precious things in the universe you can get for a halfpenny.
I make an exception, of course, of the sun, the moon, the earth, people, stars, thunderstorms, and such trifles. You can get them for nothing.
— G. K. Chesterton
An attitude of wonder for these free and best things in the universe should not be underestimated. Is it possible to learn or live well without such a perspective?
My Top Nine Study Hacks
These are a few of the more practical things I have learned during my first semester at Grove City College. If you have tips to share as well, please leave a comment!
Rainbow Bridge at Grove City College
- Plan and work ahead. Large assignments lose some of their terror and take less time when broken into small pieces. I studied well past midnight once, stuck on a homework problem, and decided to start homework the day it was assigned from then on.
- Study with the quiz and recall method. I learned this from Cal Newport, though I used it unknowingly in high school. Reading your notes again will only get you so far.
Look at the World!
The music of the spheres is beautiful, and yet we can become deaf to it. The solution? Look! Listen! Look at the world!
John Rutter’s Look at the World — RSS and email readers may need to click through
I was glad to see this blog post from John Piper reappear recently, featured on Lore Ferguson’s Sayable. It is clear that we all need to see the spectacular to live the mundane.
And in a world that runs toward efficiency (as if that alone were productivity), we would do well to wonder often. It is not until we have grappled with the question of what on earth we are here for that we can begin to think about how to make the most of the days we have been given.