I want to learn more (and more)

Every time I learn something, I'm overcome by such a simple and pure feeling of joy that, if I weren't so embarrassed, I'd practically jump for joy. I still remember the day I went to the bookstore with my mother when I was eight. She had decided to buy me a Petit Larousse. It was red, and we covered it up because I knew I'd carry it for as long as possible. Besides looking it up for school, I thoroughly enjoyed opening it and reading every definition I came across. The pages were very thin, and there were thousands of pages full of stories.

The Petit Larousse held second place on my personal podium, after the Jules Verne novels published by Bruguera, which included incredible comic strips. The bronze medal went to... 13 Rue del PercebeThanks to their stories, I gained an intuitive understanding of how unfairly the world is divided, and I realized that sometimes those who seem good are actually the bad guys.

Learning is wonderful, something fantastic, a very special kind of happiness. That's why I love my job, because there isn't a single day that I don't learn something, much of it difficult, and it confronts me with a world I wish didn't exist.

I also strive to learn when we're not at work. This week I learned that Joseph Roth didn't need to formally innovate his writing to be a visionary, that despite having a 19th-century way of explaining things, he was able to face the 20th century squarely—thanks, David Guzman and contributors to Ciudad Esmeralda. I've also heard that Nariné Abgarian, who writes in Russian despite being Armenian, has written a book I'm dying to read: And three apples fell from the sky –Thank you, Bookhunters and Marta Nin. And the plumber told me the other day why it's not worth buying an overly expensive water heater in a town like Inca, with "problematic" water, as he put it –thank you, Bartomeu Bauçà.

This week I've learned that everything can continue if I want it to (and can, of course). That learning never ends, that when you truly know something, you realize there are thousands more things to learn. And I've learned that joy doesn't diminish, but rather increases as you get older and free yourself from life's obligations that are no longer appropriate for your age. The students at the Open University for Seniors experience it this way, and they've taught me that everything is possible. Thank you so much!