It’s September!
The start of the school year is here and that means it’s time for kids to learn, but what about adults? We don’t have any curriculum or teachers to teach us, we’re adults – we need to teach ourselves. However, how do we figure out what we should learn or what we even want to learn?
One thing to do is think about school – what did you like? Did you like Math? English? History? Science? Maybe art, gym, health, or one of those other “specials” in school (At least that is what those subjects were called when I was in school)? We all liked at least something at one point – what was yours?
For me, I have always been a big fan of history. Most of what I have learned in school was about the Western world. One of my areas of interest is the 1789 French Revolution. So many things happened to make it come into being and the characters involved have such interesting stories! Now most of us know about Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis the 16th. If you don’t remember her name, then you have probably heard “let them eat cake” – which, fun fact, isn’t actually something she said! It was written by a Swiss philosopher around 25 years prior to the start of the French Revolution. It only started to be attributed to her around fifty years after her death. There are other interesting things around that time! Maximilien Robespierre was the guy who organized the Reign of Terror, which was the nine months or so in which they executed tens of thousands of people. But did you know he spoke at an event surrounding the coronation of Louis the 16th, the king he would later send to his death?
Now enough about that special interest. How can I get you guys interested in learning about something? Learning is a great “couch hobby” on those days our brains don’t feel like mush from treatment, especially when it is learning that we don’t need to do, just learning what we want to do!
One of my couch hobbies in genealogy and family history. It’s a great way to apply what you’ve learned of history. Family history is history through a microscope, where you can try to figure out why something happened. Genealogy can seem daunting at first, but all you need to know is the name of an ancestor who was born 1949 or earlier (America), 1930 (Canada), or 1920 (UK) to try to look them up in the census. I don’t know the dates for other countries or how well they kept records, but they may be similar. There is also DNA testing, which can help you find people you are related to – but you will need to do the research to find out how you are related to someone. (As a note, you can’t do one if you had an allogenic stem cell/bone marrow transplant because you will show the DNA of your donor.)
One of my ancestors who lived in New York City served in the Civil War for 30 days. Now, why would someone only serve for thirty days? The unit he was called up to serve in helped suppress the 1863 NY Draft Riots after the Battle of Gettysburg. After that, he went back home to live his life until he died in 1907 at the ripe old age of 80.
You aren’t interested in history or genealogy? Have you thought about checking some Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)? They’re offered for free by companies such as Coursera and EdX. Virtually all of the courses on those are free and they run the gamut from Dog Emotion and Psychology to Internet History, Technology, and Security. Both of those are courses on Coursera. I took the Internet History one – it was very interesting! You are bound to find at least something you want to check out a video in. It is free, after all!
One way I learn things is by going on Wikipedia! If you are ever bored and don’t know what to do, why not go to Wikipedia and look at a random article? Sometimes you might land on something interesting! It might take a few tries, since sometimes you will land on a random two or three sentence article, but other times you will land on something interesting like the List of unusual articles or the List of lists of lists (Yes, that is an actual article!) Come on, go take a look at one of those two: you are bound to find something that you will want to read about at least for a minute, and as happens with Wikipedia, you will probably see a link to another article that you will want to read. Then you will be trapped in Wikipedia only to emerge hours later, having gained more knowledge.
One time I spent hours reading about the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, which was from the end of the 1800s through a few years after the end of World War 1, and it was about people trying to be the first to reach the South Pole. (Roald Amundsen managed to reach it in 1911!)
Now we’ve talked about learning, I should mention some cancer stuff that is coming up this month! Dear Jack Foundation’s LifeList program application is opening September 17th at 10 AM Mountain Time. It’s for anyone 18-39 with cancer living in the US who is getting treatment in the US and is currently in treatment. You can wish for anything that will boost the quality of your life: travel, technology, home goods, and all kinds of things. You just can’t request direct financial assistance, cash, or gift cards.
Elephants & Tea is also having a magazine release event in Boston on September 25th & 26th. If you are in the area, make sure to think about going, their magazine release events are a good time!
I hope all of you have a wonderful month as the season shifts to fall and that allergies do not strike as much as they could. If any of you want to reach out, you can always message me on Instagram (@codyhatescancer) If you have a topic you want me to write about just email or message me. I am always up for writing about a suggestion!
Want to reach out to Cody with questions or a request to write on a specific topic? Send us an email at programs@cactuscancer.org or reach him on Instagram at @codyhatescancer!
