Never too late to learn
Life lessons: Grow and learn
By Emma Levez Larocque
Starting a new job in a field completely unrelated to one's career is not something most people picture themselves doing in their 50s. But that's exactly what Peggy Brown did last year when she began working at Mother Nature.
"In 2007 I retired [from my job in Richmond where I worked as a coordination manager in the community services division for the City] and moved to Powell River. My kids are here and I had fallen in love with the community." For the first couple of years she tried to adjust to retirement and a slower pace of life. "But then I found I needed more," she says.
Peggy called up Mother Nature, and her timing was good. "I love plants, and I loved the atmosphere in the store. I had an instinct that I would love working there--and I do!"
In her previous job Peggy was responsible for managing budgets and people. She describes it as "busy, political, and rewarding." Her new job at Mother Nature is rewarding, but in a completely different way. Despite the fact that Peggy has been gardening since her 30s, it has always been a hobby, and she has had a steep learning curve as she strives to learn as much as she can to assist customers at the store.
"I know a lot about flowers, and that is the area I thought I would work in, but I ended up in the nursery with the shrubs and the trees, and I didn't know much about them." Luckily Peggy has a curious mind, and she was keen to learn.
"I know when I go to a nursery I expect the people working there to know about what they're selling." So she has been doing her homework. Learning from books, the internet, her co-workers and sometimes customers, Peggy is arming herself with new knowledge. She is learning everything from the Latin names for a variety of species to how to properly care for specific trees and shrubs in pots.
"I'm 58 years old, and I don't want my mind to seize up on me," she says. "I want to keep learning, keep my brain activeÉ I really believe that you're never too old to learn--the brain is always able to find new pathways, and remember old ones, for learning. Sometimes as we get older we think we know as much as we need to know. And that's when we become isolated from the world."
There are some challenges to learning new things as an adult, Peggy continues. "My brain is not as plastic as it was once," she says. "It takes me a longer time to remember and learn things than it did when I was younger. For example, in my 20s I learned to play the guitar, and I could play it well. If I played a song two or three times I knew it by heart. Now if I play a new song five or eight times, I still need the musicÉI think it's different as an adult. You have more going on, you have stress, fatigue, physical problems--all of those things take a toll on the way the brain works."
Nevertheless, it's worth the effort.
"One of the biggest rewards is that every time I learn something, it makes it easier to learn the next thing. And it's exciting! When you've tracked down information that's hard to find, it's like you've conquered something."
Peggy is not only busy mastering trees and shrubs, she is learning how to play the piano, has joined the dragonboat team, and she's learning how to fix things around her home.
But perhaps the biggest learning curve of all comes from her two grandsons, two-and-a-half years and 14-months old. "As a grandparent you think you know it all because you've done this before, but they never stop, and they are constantly teaching me!"
Never Too Late To Learn is a literacy awareness campaign sponsored by the Powell River Literacy Council and Powell River Living. If you know of an adult that would be a great feature, contact Emma at emma@powellriverliteracy.ca.
