Non-Book: Doing Something For Myself

Ever since Christmas, I've been feeling a bit restless.  Last year I was planning a wedding, the year before that was my first year teaching and the year before that I was training to be a teacher - I've not had any mental space to be restless for a long time!  Whilst we are saving for a deposit on a house, that's quite a slow process and it'll be Christmas at least before it'll be time to start looking at houses.  So I've decided to do something I've been thinking about doing for a while - return to studying.

I'm the kind of person that always needs something to keep their brain busy in order to be happy.  I don't deal well with long periods with nothing to do, and I love a challenge.  My three years of undergraduate study (in psychology) are amongst the happiest of my life so far because I've always enjoyed studying and learning.  So I'm taking the plunge back into it and have signed up with the Open University.  For those not in the UK, it's a distance-learning university that offers a range of courses and options.

The first module I am taking is called Galaxies, Stars and Planets and it's quite a short module only worth 10 credits.  I start at the beginning of May.  I'm not aiming to work towards another degree or indeed have a career change as a scientist, I'm just taking the course because it's something I'm interested in and have always wanted to find out more about.  My next module after that might be in something completely different (I might even choose a literature module or two?).

Here's what I am going to learn about: the sun, planets, stars and their life cycle, galaxies, the origins and future of the universe, exoplanets, the expanding universe, dark matter, dark energy, black holes and astronomy skills.  I'm excited!  I never really appreciated science whilst I was at school but since leaving it I've become a lot more interested in it, physics especially.  It'll be strange completing assignments again but I'm going to give it a good go and hopefully fit it in around my work responsibilities.

I'm excited too because it feels like a positive step for myself and my happiness.  It's nice to do something where the only reason for doing it is because I want to!

If you went back to studying, what would you study?  Is it something you can see yourself doing in the future?