Learning the Hard Way

Trypanosoma Levisi. These two words have been haunting me since I first heard them. Science is my first love; more specifically, Biology. So going to Biology class for me was supposed to be fun and exciting and I anticipated going to my early morning sessions of Biology… that is, until this happened:

 

I have always prided myself on getting very high grades, whether I study or not. For one thing, I listen keenly and remember everything I listen to; secondly, I was blessed with a photographic memory, so once I see it, I’ll remember it. Our first class then was on the parasite Trypanosoma Levisi, and there were two major problems with the parasite. First one, is that no matter how hard I listened, I couldn’t get past what I thought was “Trip on the sofa” and two, I have never seen the creature, so I was doomed, as we had a quiz coming up.

I went home and tried hard to piece together what the professor tried to tell me about a sofa. Did a parasite live there? Are all people doomed because this parasite might infest the sofa and ultimately give us germs? I was in a quandary, and I was at a loss as well, because the day for the quiz was here.

There were two questions posed for the quiz, each worth 5 marks. The first question was “What is the Trypanosoma Levisi?” followed by: ”List two major characteristics of the Trypanosoma Levisi.” We had 20 minutes to complete the quiz, and friends, I can tell you that I pre-accepted my first zero within the first 10 seconds of receiving the paper. And so it was: I decided to close my brain to the idea of prior knowledge, and start accepting new knowledge as it came to me. If I wasn’t clear on something, I quickly raised my hand to ask for clarification, and I became very much acquainted with my new love: Google. That zero put things into perspective for me. I am still haunted, however, by the trauma that I was forced to go through because of “Trip on the sofa Levisi.”

 

As a mature student, I thought I knew all the basics of being successful in university. Sometimes, it’s best to just sit back, watch and learn. I was surprised at how much new information I gathered from this one class, even though I did this very same course previously for my first degree.

It was Henry Ford who said “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”  

I plan to stay young.

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Jodi-Ann is an Environmental Studies major in Nova Scotia, Canada.