Can You Teach an Old Dog New Tricks, or at Least a Middle-Aged One?

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about my quest to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life now that my daughters are seventeen and thirteen.  The seventeen year old will be off to college next year and the thirteen year old  will follow just four years later.  Well, I realize, that besides figuring out what I want to do, I also have to figure out how to do it.  Literally.

When I left my last job, it was the summer of 1997, fourteen years ago. My office was just about to start using e-mail and it sounded really kind of...scary.  I was relieved to be getting out. Would I ever be able to handle such technology?? I highly doubted it.

Now I laugh at myself. I am an extremely proficient e-mailer.  But the fact is, I did leave my office at the very beginning of a huge technology boon.  Soon after e-mail came instant messaging.  Widespread cell phone use. Texting. Excel. Power Point. The list of technologies I was never taught is long and daunting.  I would need to learn them.

I also don't like change. There. I said it.  And I admit sheepishly, I don't like learning new things.  I never liked school.  I got out the minute I earned my bachelor's degree, which I did in three and a half years instead of four, just to be done.

First I had to learn to use a cell phone. I resisted carrying a cell phone for a long time. Who on earth would I need to call the minute I left the house, during errands, while I was out for lunch?  Years after everyone else was carrying one of these pocket-sized gadgets, I finally got my first phone, and then upgraded eventually to a flip phone.  (Yeah I know you're laughing!) Soon I felt uncomfortable if I left the house without my phone. Two years ago I upgraded again to a phone with a small keyboard.  I had never texted.

I decided to learn texting because my kids knew how to do it, and grudgingly, I could admit that at times it came in handy.  Like, say, when my daughter was out in a group of thousands and needed to tell me where to find her.  When my husband was at a football game and wanted to tell me when he would be home.  It would be handy. So, nervous as I was to learn this "new technology" I soon embraced it.  Now I don't know where I would be if I couldn't text a quick message to a friend or family member. (Confession:My husband and kids programmed my phone for me.)

I use Word proficiently.  I instant message with the best of them.  About a year and a half ago, on the suggestion of the Today Show, I joined Facebook.  Now I use that with gusto.  I've never joined Twitter, though I am fascinated by the idea that I could tweet with celebrities, should I want to (!), and now there's  Google Plus, which I haven't tried but seems to be growing in popularity.

All this goes back to my "finding myself" woes.  If I want to work in nearly any job these days, I'm going to need to be more technologically advanced.  So a few days ago, my daughter started teaching me PowerPoint.  Nevermind that I'm like, the worst designer ever. (I'm much more interested in the sentences I'm creating than what color they are or whether they fade in or have a cute little graphic near them.) But each day I'm trying to create slides to get better. (I'm happy to say that PowerPoint isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.)

Then there's the other big gun in office administration, Excel.  It seems so daunting to me. I don't know why. But I need to at least be able to do the basics.  So this morning, my husband, who has taught himself every new technology as he has continued working, started teaching me how to create a spreadsheet.  After about fifteen minutes, my mind started wandering.  I'd much rather be reading, I thought to myself. Or pulling my toenails off.

But I will keep trying.  Each day, like taking a spoonful of medicine, I'll work on Excel and PowerPoint and I'm sure soon using them will be like texting and emailing and instant messaging.  Well, maybe not soon. But...eventually.