Enrolling Myself In Self-Guided “Adult School” AKA Life University
One thing about me that’s never going to change… is my passion for learning, fueled by my curiosity. My mom is a college professor so she instilled a love of education into me from a young age. I was always a dedicated student who had close relationships with my teachers, aimed for straight A report cards, was involved in many extra-curricular activities, and got so excited to begin each new school year.
By the time I was 10 years old, our basement playroom had evolved into my own classroom where I forced all the neighborhood kids to come to my school. I made worksheets, art projects, quizzes, schedules… the whole thing. My parents were so supportive and bought a bunch of materials like crafts, chalkboards, paper, etc to make my classroom even more real.
It’s honestly so surprising that I didn’t become a teacher! My sister did though. I still love to teach but I guess I do it in a non-traditional sense through my podcast and social media. I would also love to homeschool my kid(s) someday.
All that to say, I would certainly classify myself as a “lifelong learner” so I was giddy when I saw the trend on TikTok (started by Elizabeth Jean) of people creating their own self-guided adult curriculum. I haven’t been this excited about a social media trend in a long time. Immediately, I went down the rabbit hole of videos under the #CurriculumClub hashtag to gain inspiration for how I was going to build out my personal curriculum.
After a few days of reflection, research and endless note-taking, I have come up with 10 courses that I am “enrolled” in this fall… a full 30 credit schedule lol. I know this is ambitious but I’ve wrapped my entire lifestyle (work, hobbies, interests, health, personal goals) into this because I believe developing a framework will help me stay consistent.
We also did an episode on Already Friends if you’d like to learn more in audio format! Available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
To see success with this endeavor, I think it’s important to have a really clear idea of why I’m doing it, what I want to get out of it, how I will actually go about it, and how my progress and participation will be measured.
So each 16-week course has:
fun-catchy title that makes me excited
clear and concise learning objective
specific activities to attend throughout
materials and content to study / learn from
$300 “grant” to spend on resources
final output for completion (project, exam, etc)
My 10 Courses:
1. Foreign Language & Cultural Studies
Dutch 101: Everyday Words
2. Botany & Traditional Medicine
3. Technology & Media
The Content Lab: Consistency As A Creative Habit
4. Health Sciences & Family Studies
Designing a Sacred Home Birth Arrival
5. Fine Arts & Design
The Art of Floral Arrangement
6. Wellness & Somatics
Face Alchemy Through Yoga and Acupressure
7. Culinary Arts & World Studies
8. Physical Education
9. Animal Care
The Pawfect Peaches’ Protocol
10. Entrepreneurship & Operations Management
“Internship” at 1404 Collective