I was once a fool.

I chose to distract myself instead of educate myself.

I chose to try to pave my own path, instead of discovering life lessons from the greatest who graced this Earth before me.

I chose to be closed minded, instead dropping my ego and allowing new ideas to marinate inside of me.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I chose to be small, which led to a life of mediocrity. There was no personal growth. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. There was no hope of maximizing my potential. It was Groundhog Day, over and over.

Here’s what I know now - Education is Freedom.

Not education in the sense of going to school and taking exams to prove your knowledge in a subject you don’t care about. Education in the sense of learning about how to live life through the vast library of books left to us by history’s greatest minds.

Education should be self-motivated. A personally curated list of books that contain endless amount of wisdom. You choose the subject, you learn the subject, and then you practice the subject while you live your life. Don’t be a scholar, be a student of life.

Education allows you to stop “being yourself”. It instead allows you to “recreate yourself.”

You can learn to be more self-aware, more humble, more empathetic, less needy, less annoying, or less arrogant. Any issue or problem you face today, has been dealt with and handled by someone in the past. Our personal problems are not unique and neither are the solutions.

So pick up a book today. Read not for pleasure, but read to learn how to live life.

Read. Learn. Live.