My Learning Experience Blog - by Emma Cannaby #9 Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells... (To find out why Emma is writing about her own learning experience - click here)

December 2011

"Tis the season to be jolly… or so they say. One month into the last two units and I do not know where the time has gone! Has it been another year already? I have been married six months, Ruby the dog turned two, I have passed 6 modules with two to do in January, Santa is packing his sleigh and I don’t know if I am coming or going!

I have already had three Christmas dinners and it is only the 8th December. The tree is up and decorated, and I have comfortably nested in my self-made grotto. Every room is full of tinsel, baubles and generic winter based paraphernalia and I am in a mighty fine mood! :-)

The Parsnip

I start this story on one of my planned study days. I have started off really well, learning about Project management and research methods, reading literature and books when I find out that my car has cost me over £450! Just before Christmas too. That is enough to put anyone off working for the rest of the day. As if it is not the most financially debilitating month as it is, let's throw the biggest bill I have ever received for my car at me NOW.

How do you motivate yourself after that? I have a tight schedule to stick to as it is the month of good-will and I have so many social events - I need to get myself back into the swing of things!  I have lunch; I watch a variety of daytime TV, when Mr C comes in the house with the biggest parsnip I have ever seen from our vegetable patch. If only there was a local vegetable freak show for us to show off our mighty produce. The excitement of the monumental parsnip makes it all feel worthwhile. You can drain me of money, but you can’t take away my incredible growing skills!

After calming down (which fellow vegetable growers will understand) I am very proud to report this day ends up as a five lecture day, one of my more productive study days. (I average out at about 3 lectures a day with researching and book reading.)

What I learned on the day of the parsnip is to not let bad turns of luck stop you from learning, just find some inspiration, and carry on. It is incredible how much a perennial herb can motivate you :-)

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