I've never really been one to overemphasize the end of something, whether it be the end of the year, a final blogpost, or some other marker of something coming to a close. I've always found it important to define things by the sum of all their parts, rather than how they finish, but with that all being said, I suppose there is some importance in "finishing strong." So, as I write this last blog post, if there is one idea that I'd like to stress as sort of a closing thought, it'd just be: keep an open mind. Tying it all back to this blog's lens of offering sympathy to underappreciated or misunderstood viewpoints, I'd just like to make one final point endorsing the idea that there's no end to learning. As long as you're receptive and willing to consider perspectives that may differ from your own, you will always be putting yourself in a position to learn more, and acquire more information and experiences.
It feels strange to try to sum up all the lessons that I've been taught over four years of Academy, or even over this past year, so instead of taking some kind of metacognitive approach, attempting to capture the spirit of everything I've picked up on in the last four years, I'd like to continue to move the learning process forward and stress that it is far from over. Obviously with the pursuit of higher education, going to college, and continuing to move up the ladder of the American education system, it should be expecting that we, as soon-to-be Academy graduates, have far from completed the learning process, but I'm not so much talking about learning in the scholastic sense, I'm more concerned with life learning. The point at which people go off to college and are really forced into taking independent control over their own lives can in fact be a point where people get comfortable with a particular way of living, set in their ways, and either subconsciously or consciously begin to close themselves off from opinions or ideas they don't at first agree with. Whether it be something as trivial as actually listening to someone argue with you, or on a more macroscopic scale, recognizing the importance of being uncomfortable in order to gain an appreciation for something new, the takeaway message of this extraordinarily vague final blog post is just to always keep an open mind.
I've noticed that because I've been in a position where I'e been making some decently big life decisions, like where I'll be living next year, what I'll be studying, and everything else related to college and graduating high school, people have been trying to give me life advice now more than ever before. It's not hard for all of this advice to drown itself out, which might be a reason I'm sort of trying to avoid being overly preachy in this last post, but one quote that really resonated with me and is actually one of the best pieces of advice I've ever been given is when someone told me that regardless of where anyone will be living or what they'll be doing next year, "life is all about gaining experience." So, as I close out this blog that has more or less just served as a venue for me to be cynical and play devil's advocate, I offer the same sort of advice that was offered to me; my message to all readers is just to try to always put yourself in the best possible position for you to learn or experience something new. Don't fear the uncomfortable, don't close yourself off to something just because it's foreign, and don't write off something as wrong just because you don't initially agree with it. Keep an open mind. Never stop learning. Don't try to write a good conclusion, just think of everything as the next chapter.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.
