Learning a new skill

Every time I think of something new I’d like to learn, my second step is to immediately look for a course that will teach me how to do it. Case in point: my list of things I’d like to do this year.

1. Practice regular yoga
2. Speak better French
3. Make this blog a priority
4. Travel to South-East Asia
5. Improve my sewing

Without exception, I’ve either completed, enrolled in, or browsed a course on how to accomplish each of these things. For some reason, I default to formal, structured education every time I identify something I’d like to learn. My sixth-year-uni-student brain stubbornly refuses to accept any form of education less structured than an Elaine Benes box blazer and panics, to boot, when no such course exits. (Perhaps out of fear that I’ll find out formal education is by no means the only valid form of education; sacre bleu!)

I can’t quite convince myself that I can learn these skills without enrolling in a course. That I can teach them to myself. Which is strange, because I’ve done it before.

With my garden. The first time around, all of my seedlings died. Every single one of them. The chilli plant that erupted manically from the ground in a single day grew to an impressive height of 4cm before crumpling under the weight of its single green leaf and folding in on itself. The climbing spinach seedlings I’d pictured growing romantically over a trellis, feeding my family with their richly nourishing leaves, sucked themselves back into the ground like someone had warned them. The broccoli, the pumpkin, the geraniums I’d optimistically bought to attract bees to the plants that would definitely be fruiting – all withered and died.

I was crushed. But the next time around, I was better.

I planted only pumpkin seeds, tended to them carefully, and watched them slowly bloom into thick vines, with spindly curled tendrils and prehistoric leaves. I watched the vine climb up that bare trellis, I watched flowers bloom, and I watched a single pumpkin form.

Then, I watched the vine crush itself supporting the pumpkin’s weight and I watched the whole thing die within two days.

I was crushed (like the vine, ooh). But the next time around, I’m better.

I’ve replanted – I have broccoli, spinach, basil and garlic seedlings and though it’s early days, they’re doing well. I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve made with my previous two gardens, and I’ll learn more from whatever new mistakes I make with this one.

I’ve never read a gardening book. I’ve never taken a course.

I’m teaching myself how to garden just by doing it.

Why don’t I do that with the rest of my list?

Instead of enrolling in a yoga course, just practice in my bedroom. Instead of signing up for French classes, speak with my fluent mother. Instead of researching ‘how to write a blog’ courses, just sit down and write it.

Why not?