Blog Summary #3

Now that this course has come to a close, i must admit that there were things that i learnt about myself. I was a little apprehensive when i first entered this course, thinking to myself, "I know what leisure is, i don't need to be educated about it"...Boy was i wrong! Well, let's start with the basics,shall we?

Coming into the course, i thought leisure was another term for recreation, but i learnt quickly that it is not. So, let's just say that right away i realized that i may not have all the answers, and should probably pay close attention on how to become leisure educated in class. It paid off big time now that i look back at my previous blogs and blog summaries. For example, i know now that there is such a thing as serious leisure, which i can discuss now in relation to following my beloved yanks, and having watched their season go down the tube, and even monitoring the sale of the old seats from the stadium for cheap prices. I also learnt that since one definition of leisure is a state of mind, invloving perceived freedom, freedom to choose and freedom from, i was able to leisure at a party celebration at work, even though it started out through extrinsic motivation (i wanted to keep my job and get paid), but later turned into something intrinsic.

I know that family is what keeps me going when times are tough, and now that i have looked back on my blog entry about helping my parents webcam with my nieces and nephews, i am even more convinced that leisure can be found by all. At that point in time, i felt i was educated about leisure to the point where i was educating others on opportunities for leisure. And again, all it took was a few minutes out of my day, because i was so convinced of it's importance in my life, that I wanted to help educate my parents on how they could be strengthening their social connections, by knowing how to use webcam, and that they could use it to talk to relatives all over the world.
Now that this course is over, i am more confident in my abilities to design a leisure education program, with the goal of educating others and allowing them to understand how they can value leisure in their life. I know now that simply doing leisure is not leisure education, unless it is to learn skill sets. Leisure is definitely becoming a significant topic in my life as a result of this course and i am realizing this by re-reading my older blogs.I also am more educated about what i DON'T consider to be leisure, such as typing a 16 page research proposal for another class, or creating a group adaptivity project.

I also know that i have made significant gains in leisure, by allowing it to encompass my culture beliefs and values as well. I never considered practicing shofar blowing (blasting of a ram's horn on the Jewish New Year) to be leisure until i took this course, but i was intrinscially, (and somewhat extrinsically) motivated to practice learning how, even though it was difficult the first few times. i value it even more now that i have seen it's importance in my life and that if i simply put my mind to it, i can find leisure in the spiritual realm of life as well.

Csikszentmihalyi (as cited in Datillo, 39)refers to flow as, "a state of deep concentration and loss of conscious attention to the surrounding environment". This past weekend, at my friends rink hockey party, although it was semi-serious game, once i got skating, I was actually able to get into a state of 'flow' during parts of the game, where i was matching my skill set with the challenge presented to me, so that i was in a 'zone' and time was passing by before my very eyes. And how could i forget playing basketball at the Y, when i was stressed with school and upcoming papers, where i was able to be free to choose this leisure activity and separate myself from educational obligations (albeit it for one night a week).

I can definitely say that after these past 12 weeks,leisure has been bumped up on my list of important things in life, now that i am fully educated about it's significance and the opportunities that exist all around me to be able to discover leisure, and help other people who may not have seen the leisure 'light' yet. As a wise bear once said, "Only YOU can prevent leisure ignorance...or was it forest fires?"
Happy Vacationing!!