On a cosy Sunday

relaxed wool socks
Photo: ©Mia Salminen 2017

♫Sunday Monday happy days
Tuesday Wednesday happy days
Thursday Friday happy days
Saturday what a day
Rockin’ all week for you♫ – Happy Days, TV tune.

Sundays should be a cosy day, as it used to be. But now the stores are open every day of the week. For me, Sundays are cosy. If they weren’t, weekdays would be stressful. Being cosy doesn’t mean staying inside all day. If the day is sunny, you can be cosy outside. Sundays, my parents and I went for walks in the countryside. After my mum passed away, I still went out with Dad, but the walks weren’t as long as before. He played golf, so sometimes we went to the golf course to hit balls on the driving range. But that stopped a couple of years ago when things happened, and he couldn’t do it anymore.

I still drive to nature or take bike rides whenever possible. That’s my kind of cosy. But I also watch TV or on the computer. It happens every day of the week, not only on Sundays. Watching sports on TV is relaxing and being cosy, even if sports can be irritating from time to time.

I watch the Finnish version of Dancing with the Stars on Sundays, but the season will end soon. Even if I don’t dance, seeing other people doing it is cosy. My late mother used to watch it, so I also started watching it. The final will be next Sunday, but I will watch it at a hotel. I’m driving to Helsinki that day because I’m attending an event on Monday. Life can’t always be cosy, and driving long distances is not. But by car, you move at your own pace. That’s cosy in its own right.

Curious me

Photo: Pexels

Learning new things is part of life. You need to be curious, or it will get you bored. You need to be motivated to learn, or it will all be useless. Sometimes learning is so hard you want to give up. I have now had 4 driving lessons, but it seems I’m still not ready for the driving test. In the 2nd lesson, I remembered why I didn’t finish it the first time. There is so much to think about. I actually dread the lessons a bit because I’m afraid to make a mistake. I thought I’m a fast learner, but not when it comes to driving a car. The biggest problem is changing gears. All my energy goes to that. Then there is the pressure from other drivers on the road. It feels like I never learn. At least I’m a bit better. I need to learn the gears better so I can think about other things. One lesson left, but I think the teacher will suggest some more. It was 26 years ago, the last time I drove a car, it takes time to learn again.

Being curious about learning new things hasn’t made my life any better. I’m still unemployed, and I’m turning 44 in June. Apparently, 40-year-olds don’t learn new things anymore. That’s not the reason I haven’t got hired, though. It’s the lack of experience. Maybe I’m not good enough. It’s silly to switch careers when you haven’t even been in the current one. Why would I want to switch when I have finally decided what I want to do? I don’t know what I could do. No matter what I study, I still won’t get a job. Whenever I search for a job, it always requires experience. I have no chance to get any because someone will always have more. I like to learn, so I still do no matter what. It’s the curious me that want to continue. I do it for myself and my own mental health. It’s good for the mind to study things. No one is perfect in anything. Unless you’re a superhuman which I think no one is. Learning new things is not enough. Also, knowing how to do things better. Learning a new computer program and then get better at it, that’s what pays for your efforts.

I used to dislike Adobe Illustrator, but after studied web design, I learned to like it. Our teacher was very good at teaching it, so that must be it. Now I use it daily. I’m still learning it on Behance. You always learn something new every time. Practice makes you better, and you get used to things. But only if you’re motivated. If you’re not curious enough, nothing will make you want to continue. You can’t force yourself to do things that don’t interest you. There are things I want to learn, but I don’t have enough patience to do it. I don’t like difficult things. There isn’t enough time to learn a lot of things. The brain doesn’t have enough memory capacity to handle so much information. Only concentrating on learning what interests you and focus on becoming better at it is more important. I want to learn a lot of different things, because I get bored otherwise. That’s what the curious me want to do.