Graduates and Intellectual Wellness

My oldest son graduates from eighth grade in a few weeks.  Like any mother, I am very proud of him.  It is a time that I am utilizing to look back and remember all the good times and struggles over the last nine years of formal education.  My son, you see, is a very different learner than me.  I find it frustrating.  He is completely at ease with it. 

When I was preparing for eighth grade graduation as a young girl, I was loud and proud, and I got straight A’s all year long.  The exception was one B plus, which sent me out of school on the afternoon that report cards came home in tears.  I was working toward a pair of designer jeans that my mom and dad promised me if I got straight A’s.    I got the jeans anyway- thanks mom, but more importantly, I learned just how important learning was to me. 

Intellectual Wellness is one of the dimensions that the American Wellness Registry includes in its model.  One of the things that I love and embrace about Wellness in general is that as professionals, we recognize that what might be completely un-well for one person is the utmost in wellness for another.  Intellectual Wellness is a dimension in which I can very clearly see how this works. 

I am fortunate throughout my daily journeys to meet all kinds of different people.  Each one is bright and beautiful in his or her own way.  It has taken many years for me to appreciate this.   As a learner, my intellectual wellness is stimulated through reading and taking classes.  My son’s intellectual wellness is stimulated through searching information on the internet and getting to a higher level on his favorite video game.  Others enjoy gardening and watching things grow, or not, and then figuring out why as their intellectual boost.  Some marvel in nature, taking in the grandeur of it all, and that is what keeps their minds sharp.  Still others are tinker- ers, people like my father was, who given enough time and MacGyver like resources can fix practically anything! 

The important thing about intellectual wellness is simply that you feel intellectually well.  I know for myself that if I am slacking, not learning something new or reading a challenging book I start to feel “mushy”.  Don’t get me wrong, I take learning breaks, sometimes for months at a time.  Particularly in the summer I love to read books that are considered beach worthy.  I find, though, at some point my brain reaches out and says “HEY! Remember me?” and then I am back on track, delving into something a bit more challenging. 

Simply living life is learning and can feed our intellect, so there really is no escape.  I need to grasp onto that fact and appreciate it as being enough sometimes. 

To my son, and to all the graduates from kindergarten to eighth grade, from high school through graduate school I wish congratulations.  Be proud of your intellectual wellness and of your accomplishments.

To myself, and to others who learn as I do and sometimes have difficulties grasping onto the ways others learn, I will share what I know to be true in my own family; we are different, and yet we are both well. 

Be Well!