Speed Reading and Keyboarding

The most useful classes I ever took were not required.

In high school I was enrolled in a keyboarding class. The teacher had us practice typing every day - with a box over our hands or glasses with keyboard blinders on so we could not watch what we typed. The home keys became so familiar I could type without watching - my fingers dancing like my grandfather's only his keyboard created music - where mine created poems. My fingers can almost type as fast as my ideas. Almost.

The other class, was a speed reading class. I am not even sure why I agreed when my parents enrolled me in it during my first year in college. I had no idea how life-changing that class would be. As a teacher, there have been weekends where I have collected 100, 10 page research papers. And because of my ability to read rapidly, I've been able to read them all in a few hours.

Both classes, neither "required", prepared me more for this life I've chosen, than any Algebra or Biology class I had to take in High School.