What I’m Learning this Summer, and Why

I’ve been asked (and have answered) the question many times, “Where did you come up with the idea for TeachStreet?”.

Yes, it all began with my scooter-riding class, but it really began much earlier.  You see, I’ve been a class-taker and lifelong learner for as long as I can remember.  After graduating from college in 1990, I pursued my CPA (yes, I’m an accountant!), and during those first few years also pursued courses in Financial Planning, while taking Wine Appreciation classes with my wife while we lived in Wayne, PA.  That Wine Appreciation class may have been the earliest seed of the TeachStreet idea — I distinctly remember being a little apprehensive before each class, as were the rest of the students, but by the end of class we were all having a blast, laughing and learning (of course, the wine probably helped!).

Over the years, I’ve taken Photography classes at Seattle Central Community College, classes at the now defunct DiscoverU, Intro to HTML at the University of Washington Experimental College, online classes at eduFire and Lynda.com, and spend a lot of time reading both books, blogs, magazines and whatever else I can get my hands on.

Sound familiar?

I bet it does, else you wouldn’t be reading this blog, and so passionate about TeachStreet.

However, during the early days (and years) of TeachStreet, I worked myself to death, to the point where I wasn’t taking classes.  Isn’t that crazy?!?  I was working every waking moment to build a website to help people discover great classes, teachers and schools, but I wasn’t taking the time to “eat my own dogfood”, as they say!

So, in the last few weeks and months, I’ve started to take some time to recharge, and to check out some great local teachers.  I wrote recently about my first pilates classes — they were a blast, and were great for loosening up my back, and strengthening my core.  And, this weekend I’m signed up for Speed Reading classes — what I loved about this one was that they offer a $100 discount for students who contact them via TeachStreet — that’s awesome!  And, my keyboard is finally on the way (I bought it with frequent flyer miles — so it was free — Anita the Piano Teacher will FINALLY get me as a student, after talking with me about Pianos for more than a year!)

So, why?  I guess just because I love to expand my skills, and probably because I’m still hoping to be a virtuoso at something… I obviously still haven’t yet found that special skill

What are YOU learning this summer?  Can we help you find it?

p.s. I’m going to learn to fly a plane one of these days — a longer-term goal is to fly seaplanes regularly (crazy dream would be to own one… tied up behind my house on Lake Washington… to fly up to my other home in the San Juan Islands!)