Learnings

I once heard someone say you only retain 20 percent of what you learn in school. Of course I tried to verify this on Google but came up empty, so either the percentage is off or I ate up a whole lot of farce and am spreading it around like the flu or like spam. Anyway, it seems the 20 percent that I remember is actually quite trivial. For example, one of the few things I remember from counseling class (there must have been a better name for that; I’m sure it gives the impression that we were all deviants, but that’s not the case) was a piece of advice about drying our hands. “I had a professor in college, but I don’t remember a single thing I learned in that class except for this: after you wash your hands, only use one paper towel to dry your hands off.” (not verbatim) Of course this is the only thing from that class that sticks with me. But it’s especially hard for me because I have big hands, and whenever I dry them off I’m reminded of this lesson and I limit myself to one paper towel, and it’s not enough. My hands are still wet when I exit the rest room. Thus I have to comfort myself by pretending that I’m saving the planet (while at the same time, I aggregate thousands of kilograms of garbage… from packaging… small exaggeration).

What I’m really trying to drive at is another nugget of information that I’ve retained over the years. This one is from health class, and it’s equally as trivial. The lesson, “get your vitamins from food, not from pills.” Not verbatim as well, and maybe not as trivial… But recently, this has been killing me. Recently I reflected on my diet and I was shocked by how little vegetables and fruit I consume on a daily basis. If my diet was the food pyramid, it’d be the cheddar cheese pyramid with chunks missing. I don’t get enough vitamins! I’m trying to think of ways to remedy this, and so far it’s either pills or cereal (which claims to pack over 11 vitamins and minerals)… and of course to eat more vegetables, but who wants to do that? This only came to mind because I got sick two weeks ago and I was told to take vitamin C. They didn’t say, “eat more oranges or strawberries,” they said something to the effect of, “swallow those pills!” But you know what, I say “Give me oranges! Give me strawberries!”

But fruit in the Philippines is expensive. So I’ve compromised. I found the middle ground. I found a way to help both the manufacturer and the farmer: manufactured apple cider. Contains 100 percent of my daily values based on a 2,000 calorie diet (whatever that means). Ahh… it feels good contributing to the world.