Never before have I had a New Year’s Resolution, but I suppose that’s what the New Year is for: a fresh start, remaking yourself, bettering your life. So this year, I have a resolution that is incredibly simple,but endlessly important:

Learn something new. Every day.

My idea for the resolution first came when a friend of mine gave me a book full of poems (many famous ones from all throughout Western history) as a Christmas present. I love to read, and I felt that the book would help me expand my horizons. I decided I would read a poem or two every day. My journey of simple daily learning thus began.

Reading a poem every day is easy, so I thought, “I can do more.” Now maybe supplementarily to reading a poem each day, I might peruse a news article. Or maybe I’ll watch a documentary. Or I could fall into the deep hole we call Wikipedia, if only it means I unearth something I didn’t know before.

Of course I learn new facts and figures and even new systems of thought at school each day, but such learning is required, the fulfillment of an obligation. When I take time out of my own day to catch up on current events or uncover a newfound love for Robert Frost or explore the etymology of a rarely heard word, I am growing for my own benefit, my own mind.

Maybe the idea of such random knowledge seems useless, but I truly believe it isn’t. Learning something because you want to learn it is incredibly valuable, and it can really ignite a spark into a field of discovery. Uncovering passions and pursuing them is what the heart of education should be about. Yes, those areas that you don’t find interesting and are tested on in school are also incredibly significant. Something even greater exists, though. Something within ourselves, within each of us in the human race, calls to us and desires to be realized. Find what that is for you.

After all, as said by Ray LeBlond, “You learn something every day if you pay attention."

So learn. Every day.