I’m a learner by nature and though I graduated college over 2 decades ago, I have always continued to take classes in the community. (usually through continuing

I’m a learner by nature and though I graduated college over 2 decades ago, I have always continued to take classes in the community. (usually through continuing-ed programs at a local university or through local for-profit schools. I’ve heard—but have not explored this myself—that community colleges also tend to offer interesting courses at affordable prices — eg languages, business, vocational etc) Some classes I’ve taken in recent years: - Full (semester/quarter long) courses: story telling, creative writing, Alexander technique, languages (8 quarters and still ongoing), a history of Western civilization (a 3 quarter sequence) - Once off classes: archery, calligraphy, flash fiction writing, editing, language classes on iTalki, history seminars, harmony singing I also want to say that this is one of the main advantages of living in a big city [0] with major universities (in my case UChicago [1] and Northwestern) and specialty schools [2]. When I lived in a smaller city I couldn’t have taken a fraction of the course I’d listed above. Different strokes for different folks but for me, the creative energy of a big city calls to me. (just for context, I have a full time job but no kids. I never felt that taking courses outside of work was ever too stressful — just needed a bit of time management) [0] Chicago’s Park District offers a slew of inexpensive (subsidized) courses to the public. https://apm.activecommunities.com/chicagoparkdistrict/Activity_Search?detailskeyword=&IsAdvanced=True&ddlSortBy=Activity%20name&ActivityCategoryID=1&ChildSeasonID=164&DaysOfWeek=0000000&SearchFor=2&SearchLevelID=2&maxAge=100&NumberOfItemsPerPage=50&IsSearch=true https://apm.activecommunities.com/chicagoparkdistrict/Activi... [1] The Graham School has a catalogue of humanities classes open to the public. [2] Second City Chicago has programs open to the public.