Someone recently called me a Sponge Brain, which, in context, I took as a compliment. As was defined, a Sponge Brain is the polar opposite of an Air Head. A Sponge Brain soaks up information everywhere, with a seemingly limitless capacity.
Yep, that’s me, charter member of the Lifelong Learners club.
I can’t help it! I have an insatiable curiosity and a penchant for asking questions of most everyone I meet. I want to fill up all those bazillions of brain cells with information! Whether it’s useful information is a matter of opinion, but I enjoy KNOWING things.
I also enjoy TEACHING things. Of course, that necessitates having someone to impart the information to. Fortunately, my closest friends know it’s just a part of who I am, and they tolerate me dumping a whole truckload of potentially irrelevant facts in response to a simple question.
There is a joy in learning just for the sake of learning that is almost impossible to describe. I always wished I could transfer that hunger for knowledge to my former students. Some got it, most didn’t, but I never stopped trying.
When my darling niece was nine, she went with me to Astoria to tour the Tall Ship that came into port one summer. All the way there I told her about the early fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, the adventures of Lewis and Clark, and how Cape Disappointment got its name. Crossing the Meglar-Astoria Bridge I began singing “Roll on Columbia.”
My darling niece put her hand on my arm and I stopped singing. “Auntie,” she softly asked me, “are you always a teacher?”
My darling niece is now a sophomore at the University of Washington with a very respectable grade point average. She, too, is a Sponge Brain. And while I can’t take all the credit for that, I do frequently remind her that it runs in the family.