I didn't jump right into this assignment...I tried to stop and think about all of the things that I have learned since the very beginning. I remember learning to ride my bike, learning to read, learning to add, subtract,divide, etc, and the list could go on. I also know that at some time in every one of my learning experiences, I came to a point of utter frustration. A point at which I had made the decision that I didn't want to go on learning because I couldn't do it. Now I look back on those times and think "Wow, that sounds silly....some of those things were so easy." But yet I know that I still come to that point even as a college student. I look at something head on and think that there is no way that I will ever be able to learn it. I think that my disconnections in learning (especially in college) come in when I am sitting under a professor who only lectures, and in a monotone voice at that. As my VARK inventory indicated, I am a multimodal learner. I can't sit under lecture day after day and learn to my full potential. I need to incorporate all 4 modalities to be able to learn at my full potential. So if a professor gives his monotone lecture day after day, at some point during the semester I am going to hit that point of frustration. I will have no desire to keep learning because there is no incentive. I know full well that classes aren't meant to be fun and games, but there is a healthy way to make learning enjoyable. The best school year of my life was 5th grade. Mr. Weber was probably the best teacher that I have ever had. I have never met another teacher who had such a desire for teaching. He truly made learning fun....no, our class wasn't a joke, he just utilized different methods to ensure that learning took place on a daily basis.

I can also remember the excitement that I encountered as a result of learning. But it is interesting to me that most of the excitement I gained from learning came as a result of passing the initial point of frustration. I can't really recall a time when I skipped the frustration part and went directly into excitement. I think that is what made it so much more exciting....I had almost given up, and then something *clicked*. What a sweet feeling. If I had never experienced the frustration, the excitement wouldn't have been nearly as meaningful in my life. So in a way, I am thankful for those points of frustration because they always lead me into a point of learning. I could think of several examples from Audiology class last semester. Frustration came not once, not twice, but about 500 times, but those learning points came and it was nothing less than exhilarating. Oh, and something else I should add. Those frustration points in my life contain 2 choices.....I can either give it up and quit learning, or I can push myself to those learning points. It really is an amazing process when I think about it. It's neat to see how frustration can lead to exhilaration.