Learning something new

Have you learned something new recently?  I have... and it's a pretty cool feeling.

I don't claim to be an expert on anything.  Well, that's not exactly true... I suppose I like to give people the impression that I'm an expert on lots of things.  But I don't think anyone actually believes it... I know I certainly don't.  While I love to be the person that people come to for answers, which seems to be the case far more often at the office than at home (I'm capable of admitting that my hubby is the expert of most things at home), I can also admit that there's plenty I don't know.  Plenty.  (Don't tell my husband that... or my boss, for that matter.)

But expert or not, I at least like to have a basic understanding of things that affect my life and my family.  Which is exactly why I took a gun safety course.  Sure, we'd all like to believe that this isn't something we all need to know about, but fact of the matter is there are unsafe places in this world... sadly, this is sometimes true of our own neighborhoods.  So while my husband is a gun owner, proud to have learned about hunting at a young age and already looking forward to one day passing on his knowledge to our son, I didn't grow up with guns in my home and I didn't know anyone that liked to hunt.  When my husband and I first moved in together, this was a huge hurdle for me.  Surely I couldn't ask him to give up something he enjoyed (that's something we women usually wait until marriage for), but it always made me uncomfortable.  I'd call it a 'healthy fear' of guns.  I couldn't even claim to know the basics.  So shooting for the first time was scary... kinda cool, but way scary.

Once our son was born I only had one stipulation to keeping guns in the house - we needed a gun safe so that they were always out of reach.  Easy peasy... problem solved.  Truth be told, I felt safer having them locked up anyway.

And then there were a few break-ins.  Three in one night, all on our street, the closest one just 2 doors down.  Talk about hitting close to home!  And that's when it really sunk in... just how unsafe your own home can be.  And here we are, gun owners... and me with no knowledge of what to do with them.  Someday in the not too distant future my husband would teach our son about gun safety and our 'little boy' would know more than I did.  God forbid our son ever ask me a question on the subject and I would have to say "I don't know".  Not acceptable.

So yesterday was the day I decided to learn what I needed to learn... partly for safety, partly to know what to do if anything ever went wrong, and partly to just feel comfortable with these things in our home. And I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am that I did!

The class was taught by Commence Firearms Training Academy in Cleveland.  Their staff was amazing and, within the first hour, I already felt more comfortable with guns than I had when I walked in the door... and it would be another 7 hours before we had any hands-on training.  It was a long day - 12 hours of training and information - but it was presented in a way that made it so easy to understand... and amazingly enough, the day flew by.  When all was said and done, I left there feeling like a completely new person.  Like I knew exactly what I would need to do if the situation ever presented itself.  Needless to say, the hope is that it never does... but at least I now have the knowledge I need to feel safe in my own home.

So, no, I'm still no expert on the subject.  But I was reminded just how important it is to continue learning new things.  Times change, people change and our world changes around us on a continuous basis.  Sometimes you have no choice but to adapt in order to move on.  For me, this is what allowed me to feel safe again. 

Aside from feeling safer, I thoroughly enjoyed learning something new.  I don't believe we appreciate this enough when we're in school... especially when it's something we have to do as opposed to something we choose.  But it's a really good feeling to gain new knowledge, to discover something you never knew existed and to know that, with a little bit of time and effort, you can walk away a better/stronger/smarter person than when you started.

If you have the desire to learn something new, don't wait... learning can be so much fun :)