Index Cards, My Valentine

Dearest Index Cards,

Won’t you please be my Valentine? 

I’m sorry that I never noticed you before.  All those long years ago, back in high school, then during college, and then again in MBA school, I was so self-focused, so intent on doing things on my own.  I ignored you, focusing my attention on my own “pure” memory skills, my natural ability to retain the huge amount of new information thrown my way every day by teachers and parents and friends and TV shows and Teen Magazine… and that worked for a while.  You probably think I didn’t know you even existed. In truth, I didn’t want to rely on you, didn’t want to rely on anyone or anything except my own wits!

But age, with all its challenges, can bring a new clarity.  When I recently stepped back into the scholastic universe, I realized that my ability to acquire new knowledge had changed a bit. Yes, this old dog can learn new tricks, but those new tricks have to make room between all the old knowledge – much of it only useful to win pitchers of beer at trivia night – crammed into my aging grey matter.

Oh, Index Cards, you’ve saved me! Or at least you have given me a new way to lock in what I’m learning. You willingly sacrifice your blank space and give me a way to remember new ideas and concepts.  I rejoice during an exam when I recall an answer by envisioning my own messy scrawl on your clean, white surface.  And I do remember, almost every time.

Index Cards, oh Index Cards, I’m sorry I never paid you attention before now! But maybe, just maybe, it was a matter of timing.  Maybe now is just our time to be together.

You mean so much to me, Index Cards.  Please be my Valentine.

XOXO