Over the summer I finished my Masters Degree in Accounting, yay! I am in constant need of learning though and I was going to take a couple classes this fall that have nothing to do with Accounting. However, I ultimately decided to take a little time off from being enrolled in college.

Something I worked on early this summer was trying to learn different things outside of my college classes and outside of my job. I started creating little syllabi of different things that I thought was interesting, like Art History and History, learning a language, classical literature, and things like that. I always create little lists in my notes app of things that appeal to me. Since I was finishing up my Masters, I didn’t really dive into any of the other things except taking some little classes that were offered at Interlochen. Then later in the summer, I came across a Tik Tok by Elizabeth Jean, I believe, talking about her personal curriculum. I absolutely loved it. Though, I think I saw someone else first talk about it, then I went back to Elizabeth’s page to get some more information. I put it on the back burner for a bit even though my whole feed became personal curriculum based.

I finished up my Masters, focused on work, and focused on my health for a bit. I have just been feeling off for quite some time. Last August I lost my vision for a couple of weeks and while it did come back mostly (still a little blurry at times), I never really found out what was wrong. He said it was likely an underlying auto immune disorder. So, finally, I found a new doctor and had a bunch of blood tests done, had mammography, a chest x-ray, and a few other things, like going to the dermatologist. I have a phone call tomorrow to schedule a colonoscopy and I have a follow up eye appointment in November. All the fun grown up things!

Back to my personal curriculum…I am a dreamer and a thinker, not so much a doer. I am working on changing that though. However, before I jump in to anything I need to think and plan it thoroughly. Unfortunately, I also have major decision paralysis and something else that keeps me from focusing and concentrating on a certain thing. More often than not I end up starting with a little thing and then have a million tabs open, going down a rabbit hole, ending up on the opposite side of things with a whole new list of activities, feeling overwhelmed, and then just shutting it down and not pursuing anything any further.

I have seen many people do a monthly curriculum and it takes me far too long to plan, that I will forever feel behind. Instead, I am working on a quarterly curriculum. I have done some activities and planned a few things, but I don’t have anything quite set in stone yet. And that is okay. I am looking back at some things in my notes app and trying to really decide what I want to focus on. I am also trying to determine if they are things I am actually interested in or if I am possibly just following a trend. Which is not a bad thing to do if it helps me gain new interests or helps me decide that I am not that into it. I am buckling down and working on choosing a couple of “subjects” to focus on. But I still have to factor in my health, my job, my family, and the upcoming holidays.

Looking back at my notes, I am interested in a few things:

1. Classical music – listening, learning, enjoying, eventually trying the cello again?
2. Ballet – doing ballet? watching ballet? learning about ballet?
3. Classical Literature – I am not really sure what I want out of this? Just to be “well-read”?
4. Art – learning how to do art? learning about art? art history?
5. Travel – learning, going, doing
6. History – I can’t pinpoint a time and place I want to learn. Ancient Greece? Vikings? I don’t know yet.

Beyond my list, I have more questions about what my end result is, what I want to focus on, and why. But I was driving one day and the only thing I could think about was everything I do feels so surface level. I have a much deeper desire to really dive in and learn and understand. I have a fear of getting through life and just not learning about it. So, the first step I am taking in my personal curriculum is to learn how to think deeper. I don’t really want to use AI or ChatGPT, but I do like how ChatGPT lays things out for me in more of a syllabus type of plan, versus links. So I did start there, creating a syllabus for the next quarter and then actually expanding it into two years. So, it will be a big commitment there. But really, it is just an outline and up to me to work on filling in the gaps. I will be posting all about that tomorrow.

In addition, I will be focusing on some literature (not necessarily classical literature) but just reading something. I have finished a few books so far this fall: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness; Saltwater by Katy Hays; Someday, Now by Tembi Locke; The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham; Lesser Ruins by Mark Haber; Piranesi by Susanna Clarke; and The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. I attended a National Writers Series Event which was an interview with Angela Flournoy and her book “The Wilderness”. There is another event this week with Lance Richardson, who wrote about Peter Matthiessen, that I would like to attend. This one is virtual.

I have been and will be focusing on classical music (and beyond, such as romantic, Neo-romantic, baroque, etc). I attended a couple of summer concerts that the TC Philharmonic put on. The first was John Williams and Movie Magic and the second was Beethoven 7 & Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. I also attended the opening TC Phil performance for the 2025/2026 season – Beethoven 5 and American 4 Seasons. The next event is this weekend, The Planets & 2001 A Space Odyssey. New this year, they are hosting a backstage pass event the night prior, which will kind of be a primer for the performance the following day. I have tickets to both. They also offer a weekly music appreciation class for the month of October, which I have been attending and learning a lot. This year it is all about American Masters.

To be continued…