Words to repeat to yourself:
Even while learning from others,
I respect my unique process, too.
It matters to take time to cultivate
the kind of rhythms that make sense
for where I currently am.
The word “learning” tends to lend itself to movement: it can feel very external, active… a way of reaching out toward others, toward what is not yet known. This can be a beautiful thing: it opens connection, dialogue, and growth. Learning from others is so central to how ideas and skills circulate. And at the same time, there may be seasons where movement turns inward. You might start to reflect on all you’ve been taking in and wonder: “Am I actually understanding any of this?” “Or am I just trying to keep up?” In this space, even when we don’t use the word comparison, there might be a tendency to measure ourselves against others, questioning whether we’re moving fast enough or doing enough. But when we arrive here, it doesn’t mean we have to shut down or start over. Respecting your own process, in this sense, means noticing how learning actually unfolds for you, even when it doesn’t match the pace or pattern of others.
Over time, that awareness can turn into a kind of steadiness, where learning isn’t just about taking in more and more, and more about understanding what has already taken root. In this way: the word “learning” can also reflect return. After years and years of listening, trying, and revising, it can be a way of taking and shaping rhythms that make sense for where you currently are. To learn is to locate. To locate, even when the map changes. To keep listening, even after you’ve heard so much. And when learning takes that shape, it stops being about arrival at all, and becomes the ongoing practice of being where you are. – Morgan Harper Nichols
