Today, I Learned That Learning Isn't Easy

Today, I learned that learning isn't easy.

Or, also, that learning is so easy, it's hard to tell when learning happening. Or, at least, that learning is so second nature that it's hard to actually pinpoint what one is learning.

Take this discovery itself - that learning isn't easy - as an example. Is it actually something I learned? Or just a revelation or epiphany I had? I'm not sure that to learn something or to realize it mean the same thing, but I must have known, at some point, perhaps when I was a full-time student at various levels of study, that learning was hard. I'll admit that I felt I had it pretty easy throughout much of my formal education, aside from math, which has always been my Achilles heel and not new news to those of you who have known me for more than a few months.

So, I suppose I relearned that learning is hard. 

My meta-education aside, my point here is that while some topics for this blog seem natural and present themselves throughout the course of the day or week, other topics that could potentially occur to me simply don't, because I don't realize that I'm learning something. Still others I'm actively searching for and, for that, I've engaged Coursera.

Coursera "provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online." Many institutions offer courses as part of specializations with paid options if you'd like to have a certificate to show for your efforts. Most courses have at least some kind of free option, even those that are part of specializations, by enrolling in courses individually and waiving the certificate option.

I first discovered Coursera in 2013, when I read somewhere (probably on Twitter) that Wharton would be posting its basic MBA courses on Coursera. Getting a master's degree is on my bucket list, though I admit I'm not sure yet what I'd decide to study at that level. I have heard over the years that an MBA is the most valuable graduate degree a communications/public relations professional can obtain, so I figured I would take advantage of the offering on Coursera.

Which was all very well-intentioned, of course, but I think I ended up actually finishing about 25 percent of the first course. I was working full-time then, training for a half-marathon and had everyday access to my horse, so suffice it to say I mostly further honed my procrastination skills and bailed on the courses.

Fast forward to now, when I'm working part-time, not training for any races and my horse is very nearly 1,200 miles away. We've been in Minnesota since mid-November, the new digs are settled, the holidays are over. I now have zero excuses for not jumping all over the resources Coursera offers.

So, naturally, I'm completely overdoing it and have enrolled in not one, not two, but six courses that are either active now or begin in the next one to two weeks, and have four more on the horizon that follow these in the next month or two. I'll be getting into the Wharton MBA courses, as well as programming and web design (which has piqued my curiosity ever since working in the communications and marketing department at my college) offered by Duke, and several photography (which I'm interested in only semi-recently as my husband and I invested in a nice camera just before our honeymoon, only to realize once we got there that neither of us really knew how to get the best photos with it) courses via Michigan State.

Unfortunately, they don't offer courses in crocheting or knitting, both of which you might remember from my first entry as being skills I'd like to learn this year. I thought colleges were supposed to offer "fluff" classes like that. Or maybe that's just underwater basket weaving these days.

I may or not blog here about things that I'm learning there. I have the feeling that reading a blog about programming and web design would bore all but the most loyal of my family and friends to tears, though a novice's perspective might be at least entertaining to the techy types among you. Same goes for the MBA courses, though some of the photography education might be interesting to some of you, in this day of Instagramming everything we see. Time will tell.

At any rate, if there is something you are passionate about - or even mildly interested in - learning, please know that resources like Coursera exist. I also recently heard of Duolingo (via the programming and web design course, actually, so there's something!), where you can learn a language for free. I can only imagine what else is out there available to help us learn if only we take the initiative to look for it.

Today, I Learned About Man O' War!

Today, I learned about Man o' War, aka my mom's horse's great great great grandfather!

You might know that I'm a crazy horse lady. One of my favorite descriptions I've heard of crazy horse ladies is that we're a more expensive version of crazy cat ladies. I currently have one horse of my own, a mare (meaning lady horse) named Barbie (pictured below), who is currently wintering in South Carolina until I find a new home for her and it's safe enough to bring her here to Minnesota. I've known Barbie since the day she was born, almost 18 years ago, and I've been privileged enough to be her owner, courtesy of my parents, since 2004. 

#wcw = my goofy, gorgeous, generous, giant-hearted best gal on four legs. She puts the "horse" in my "horse crazy" (and my "horse poor," of course), and I can't even remember a time when I didn't love her.

A photo posted by @ngiverson on Sep 9, 2015 at 3:54pm PDT

My mom has three, including the first our family purchased in 1998, when riding was a family affair that included my mom, my sister and myself. That mare, whose barn name is Target, was 10 at the time and pregnant with a filly (meaning baby lady horse), who we named Izzy when she was born. As with any horse (or other purchase, really) one gets from someone else, one can only know what one is told about that horse by its previous owners and sometimes the histories get tough to keep track of. 

Partially because of that and probably partially because I was just a kid when we brought her home with us, I don't really know what Target's background was, but I do know that she was a challenge to ride. Target remains, to this day, one of the sweetest, kindest, gentlest horses I have ever met. She desperately wanted to please her rider, but she wasn't always mentally or physically capable of doing what we asked and tried to teach her. 

Nonetheless, she will always have a soft spot in my heart and will always have a home at my mom's. She'll be 28 in May, which is very nearly geriatric in the horse world, and has been retired for some time now. It's the least she deserves for the many joyful and educational years she brought us, and the love and kindness she continues to bring.

For fun, here are a few photos of Target and Izzy from back in the day, courtesy of my mom.

Target and Izzy just moments after Izzy was born.

Taking a stroll, probably one of her first, at just days old.

Izzy flaunting it for the camera.

She was so cute!

Anyway, I recently joined a group on Facebook called Junior Rider News, a community of amateur riders, talent scouts, brands potentially offering ambassadorships and the like, which is equal parts ridiculous and fascinating. At the risk of sounding old and bitter, when I grew up with horses, social media wasn't a thing and the only people I had to compare myself with were my fellow 4-Hers and the other horsemen we saw at local shows. JRN epitomizes basic (and not necessarily in a good way) equestrians as far as I can tell so far - asking for critiques on equitation (meaning a rider's form while astride), asking opinions on a horse's confirmation (meaning how the horse is put together or built) or how much everyone had paid for their horses or what color they should use to monogram their newest saddle pad to best accent their horse's coloring, along with a few sarcastic posts and wars in the comments, all interspersed with selfies posed with horses and Starbucks cups photos taken from the saddle with the horse's ears perfectly framing the landscape. It's like a car crash I can't look away from.

Much of this group is well-intentioned albeit vaguely trite chatter, but every now and then a nugget of something interesting surfaces. Today, that nugget was a screenshot someone had posted of their horse's bloodlines from allbreedpedigree.com. I had never heard of this site before, was intrigued and so poked around a little bit, running queries on all my favorite horses. My own mare and her dam (meaning mom) weren't listed, but Barbie's sire (meaning dad) was. I'm not sure how the site is populated, as Izzy wasn't listed either, but Target sure was - and look who's back there a few generations!

Now, you're probably thinking that "Man o' War" sounds familiar, but you might not remember why. To save you the trouble of searching, here's the link to his Wikipedia page. The short version is that Man o' War was the winningest Thoroughbred racehorse of his time, losing in just one of his 21 starts, was the winner of the Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes (aka two of the jewels of the U.S. Triple Crown) in 1920 (though technically the Triple Crown wasn't exactly a thing yet) and was the Horse of the Year that year, too. He is also sire to (meaning baby daddy) 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral. Man o' War is also in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and is immortalized as a statue at the Kentucky Horse Park. Man o' War also appears in the bloodlines of American Pharoah, who, of course, won the 2015 U.S. Triple Crown, the first horse to do so since Affirmed in 1978.

So! Pretty cool that our own dear Target is a descendant of the late, great Man o' War. She is, however, thanks to years and years of varied breeding, a registered Quarter Horse, unlike Man o' War, who was a Thoroughbred.

I'm certainly no expert on breeding or genealogy, and I do think there's far too much superfluous breeding going on the horse industry (and most domestic animals, truthfully, but that's another blog post), but I'll always be grateful for the road that Target's ancestors took that brought her to us.

Today, I Learned About Running Groups!

Today, I learned about running groups near our new home!

You might know that I love to run. I've run three half marathons and several 5Ks over the last few years. I was never much of a runner until after I had surgery for a torn ACL about five years ago. Through the physical therapy that followed, I learned that running is, contrary to popular belief, not necessarily terrible for the knees when practiced at appropriate distances and speeds and with proper form, but should actually help to keep muscles, ligaments and tendons strong to support your joints.

A photo posted by @ngiverson on Oct 20, 2013 at 7:24am PDT

Obligatory selfie after finishing my first half marathon in Syracuse, October 2013

Falling in love with running also led me to falling in love with my pup, Jack (pictured below), with whom you might also know that I'm pretty obsessed. My physical therapist recommended a phased approach to re-introducing running to my knee, along the lines of alternating running 30 seconds and walking one minute, and slowly increasing. As I built up the time and distance of running, I decided I needed a buddy to help me along and our mini-dachshund, Sofi (also pictured below), just wasn't quite up to the challenge, you know, with the teeny tiny legs and all. So my mom and I went pup-hunting, discovered Jack in the local swap sheet and, after meeting him, brought him home! 

A photo posted by @ngiverson on Aug 12, 2012 at 6:04pm PDT

Jack

A photo posted by @ngiverson on Sep 7, 2013 at 7:24am PDT

Sofi, in her natural habitat

Jack definitely has the energy and athleticism to go the distance, but he has actually turned out to be a pretty terrible running buddy, mainly due to his leash aggression toward strange dogs, the likes of which aren't always easy to predict on a running route. One particular incident during which he lost his mind at the sudden appearance of a dog he didn't know wound up with me sprawled in the road at the bottom of a hill - obviously not ideal for, you know, not getting hit by a car and dying. In his defense, he did pretty well when we lived and ran in Baltimore, as there were very few other dogs on the sidewalks near us, but then there were factors like the light rail trains and buses that would cause him to occasionally stop and cower behind my knees.

But all that aside - how could you not love that face?

A photo posted by @ngiverson on Jan 25, 2013 at 7:15pm PST

I mean really.

Anyway, I love running. Jack does not. My husband does not. Our other pup, Oscar (pictured below), also loves running, but is 11 and has had far too many reconstructive surgeries to ask that of him anymore. So what's a girl to do, when she lives in Minnesota, where it's cold and snowy, and she hates treadmills, of which her townhouse community's gym offers only two anyway? Why, look up running clubs, of course!

A photo posted by @ngiverson on Mar 22, 2014 at 5:55pm PDT

Oscar is the neediest dog I have ever met, but he's pretty darn good on leash. If he was a little younger, he'd definitely be the best running buddy my household has to offer.

I've sworn off running any more races until 2017 in a promise to my husband, as training for my most recent half marathon was a super stretch on our time and relationship budget (though also combined with planning our wedding and for moving to MN from South Carolina). I did go for a quick, necessary evil treadmill jog the other day and loathed most of it, partially because I haven't run since my last half marathon in November and partially because treadmills are just horrible, but, as is often the case with running and any other exercise, loved the feeling of having it done. So, I'm ready to get back into recreational running as a way to meet new people in our new home and, of course, be fitter (which you may remember from my last post is a New Year's resolution before bringing my horse up to MN as well).

Yesterday morning, I stumbled upon the Runner's World tweet below, on ways to refresh one's running routine. The article itself is a few years old, but it links to a running club finder and, while finding clubs in my area has been on my mind since we moved, I figured this was my prompt to actually get it done. I've also participated in several running groups in the past, but discovered those mainly by chance versus a dedicated search, so this particular tool is new to me. 

I do wish the site had an option for searching by zip code, but thankfully the gods of Google make it easy enough to determine the distance from home. Plus, some of the links are broken, but a quick search usually still got me where I needed to be. And, thanks to the glory of the Internet, finding one club often led to another and another and another.

If your running is feeling stale, try these simple tips to get rejuvenated.https://t.co/Qt9YnUWvO2 pic.twitter.com/2U8MZzN0JV

— Runner's World (@runnersworld) February 3, 2016

The main criteria I'm looking for in a running group are:

1. Reasonable driving distance from home. I'm not trying to drive more than about 20 minutes each way on a regular basis. The downtown Minneapolis clubs are all going to be right around 30, which might be okay every now and then, but I'm focusing my search on the St. Paul side of things.
2. Meeting schedule. Does the group meet morning or afternoon? I could go for either, but I'd like to avoid any meeting times too close to rush hours. How many times per week? What is the expectation for attendance?
3. Speed groups. Does the group welcome a variety of paces? I've been known to average a 9:15 mile during my best half marathon and 12:30 at my worst. I'm fairly average as far as running goes, so I won't be attempting to keep up with super fit, super fast runners who are trying to PR at Boston or anything like that.
4. Social events outside of group runs. Part of my motivation for joining a running club is to make new friends. While having a conversation during a run is totally possible and usually encouraged, talking to people while you're not huffing and puffing and drenched in sweat is a nice change of pace.
5. Fees. Of course, I'd prefer a free club, but you get what you pay for, so I'm open to a reasonable yearly or monthly fee.

Here are the top few options that seem like they might be a good fit.

• Cottage Grove Random Runners - This one is only about 15 minutes from home. I just received confirmation of joining their Facebook group, which appears to be fairly active and they even have a run this evening, though I'm not sure I'm ready to go quite yet. I can't tell exactly from the page if there is a set schedule, but perhaps over the next several weeks that will become clearer. A very kind member of the group did just message me to say that runs are usually on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
• The Running Room has a store literally just down the road from us, offering runs on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 a.m. They even post their routes, ranging from ~5K to ~15K, on their website, which is an added bonus. I've emailed them to verify the schedule and see what kind of turnout they get through the winter.
• Twin Cities Running Club - This group is $25/year, which is very reasonable, and offers group runs in a variety of locations anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes away. The schedule looks like Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 8 a.m. I've contacted them to find out about distances, paces, etc. Their website also lists the availability of social events, but I don't see any additional detail about those, so not sure what all they would entail.
• I also really like the looks of the Calhoun Beach Running Club, what with the extensive website and various training programs they offer, but they meet on the opposite side of Minneapolis and thus is too far to justify their initiation fee and monthly membership.

So, there we have it! Minneapolis-St. Paul has ranked near the top of several recent "fittest cities" lists, so I'm not surprised to discover so many choices to be had here. These are just a few that have jumped out at me so far and I can't wait to hit the roads with some new friends - as soon as I manage to string a couple miles together again, most likely via, unfortunately, the treadmill.

xoxo,

Natalyn

An introduction to "Today, I learned..."

Today, I learned that I'm going to start a blog. 

If you've known me a while, you might know that I've had two previous iterations of a blog - one required by Dr. Alisa Agozzino's social media class way back in 2009 (related, how can that have been so long ago?!) and the one that you're currently reading that had just two posts back in 2011 when I (again) attempted to restart blogging while recovering from knee surgery (I've pulled those two posts to save us both the embarrassment, but for the right price could be persuaded to allow them to see the light of day again.)

So, I guess what I really learned today is that I'm going to restart a blog. Not only am I going to do it, but I'm worthy of doing it.

I've sort of always thought that blogs had to be written by "experts." I follow several blogs and entities on various social media channels that are written or administrated by various experts in their fields. These experts are everything I could ever hope to be and will probably never become (I'm nothing if not realistic) - A-circuit equestrians, elite marathoners, Pinterest-perfect handy(wo)men, five star chefs, CEOs and comedians. All worthy of following, in hopes of emulating; we know the old theory about needing to surround oneself with greatness in order to be great.

But here's the thing: each of these "experts" always has something I don't and may not ever have, something that always seems to offset the "perfect" equation laid out by them on their blogs or captured in their Instagram accounts and fed to their Facebook and Twitter feeds, making it very near impossible to replicate. Whether it's an unlimited budget for the best bloodlines you can engineer into a horse, endless hours available for training, beaucoup bucks and spaces for executing DIY projects and restaurant-worthy recipes, or sky-high IQs and snappy wits to rival the best of SNL regulars, something in their way of going just always seems unattainable and unrelateable.

And that's okay. I don't mean to sound whiny and I certainly don't intend to undermine the talents and skills of those aforementioned experts. We all have our intrinsic gifts that we should develop to the best of our abilities. However, I would also argue that some of us are simply average by many standards, but also that that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Sometimes, our resources are limited by the lives we choose to live and the fact that many of us are simply spread too thin these days.

The important thing - regardless of resources or occupation or income - is that we are each experts in our own lives. We alone have first-hand, empirical knowledge of our own day-to-day comings and goings, what we envision for ourselves and our loved ones, what we want to do more and less of, what we care about and what can go fly a kite.

Today, I declare myself an expert at being Natalyn Giverson Worley. Today, I declare myself an expert at learning to be the best NGW known to man and woman, the world over. Today, I declare myself an expert of my own thoughts and feelings, and the freedom to put myself in writing.

I have several New Year's resolutions - to read and write more, to be fitter (particularly in preparation for moving my horse, pictured below, up to our new home in Minnesota from our old home in South Carolina), to grow my side business as a Rodan+Fields consultant, to be more deliberate and mindful in my relationship with my husband, to obtain either a second part-time job (preferably in the horse industry, in addition to my current part-time retail gig) or a full-time public relations/communications job, to be craftier (especially relearning to cross-stitch, which my mother taught me as a child and I've since forgotten, and to either crochet or knit because when the zombie apocalypse strikes, I don't want to be running around in the buff), etc. etc. etc.

So, in the spirit of being an expert at my own life but also in holding myself accountable to learning and growing, as well as my resolution to write more (though I've previously resolved to write more in actual, beautiful notebooks with purple pen as additional motivation to no avail), I'm proud to introduce you to a new series on this here Natalyn Now blog entitled, "Today, I learned..." I won't attempt to fool either of us into believing that this blog will be comprised of literally daily posts and, in reality, the posts will probably be more like, "A day or two ago, I learned...", but, at a minimum, I'm hoping to learn three to five new somethings per week and write about them.

Topics may vary (if you've already forgotten how wide-ranging my interests are, please refer back to paragraph nine), depending on what I've done/attempted to do that day. One day might be a new recipe (whether successful or not), the next might be something to do with my side gig, followed by a training exercise after that and maybe a public relations/professional development nugget the day after that. 

This blog will probably be many things - scattered in both topic and train of thought, ignored by many, maybe even hated by some, and that's okay. I also hope it will be a source of relief for the myriad thoughts and feelings inside my own head, as well as usually funny, occasionally poignant, maybe even insightful every now and then.

Above all else, though, I hope what you read here is relateable and that neither of us ever forgets that I'm just your typical almost-28-year-old trying to get through life and whatever the future might hold in the happiest, most positive and productive way possible.

While each of my varied interests may not particularly speak to you, what I hope you will be able to relate to is, at least, the "try," the gift that is our own unique life experience and the confidence to try your own life as much as possible. Because "fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?"

Looking forward to learning with you.

xo,

Natalyn