One of my new year resolutions in 2019 is to run half-marathon. It’s a bit challenging for me cause so far, the longest distance I’ve ever run is 5 Kms, which I run regularly, still we are talking about half-marathon here--four times plus.

So, I check APP KEEP, finding that there is a 56-days detailed training plan for running half-marathon. I even found a runner circle in WeChat mini program “Check-in“ (小打卡)，which so far is the best facilitator for anything I want to keep at.

In these days, if you want to develop yourself, you could almost find anything you need in the internet—from learning program to the learning community—and even better, most of them are free or charged a little—honestly, comparing to the fees for those after-classes of my son, that “little” can be totally ignored. 

For example, I want to acquire some basic financial knowledge, and there is one program in QK charged you 9.9 yuan in total—9.9 yuan, seriously? I am always in for those beautiful journals, which is known as 手帐 in Chinese, and I found one program, and it only cost me 19 yuan.

There are also many circles (sort of learning community) in “Check-in“ free to join in, which almost cover everything, from reading to writing, from exercising to art and almost anything in between.

My son likes drawing. However, you know the kids, they hardly settle for anything, and they are kind of scattered and even sometimes self-sabotaging.

Last summer holiday, I introduced him into one of the art circles, where you upload your pictures daily.

It intrigued him almost at once. During last summer holiday, we drew pictures together and uploaded them to the Internet. He always received more likes than me—which encouraged him even more. It’s really a wonderful experience.

We are now in an age where knowledge has no longer only stored in the teachers’ minds and you have to go to the school to learn.

It’s an information surplus era and knowledge is close at hand.

As long as you want to learn, you can and you will, at any time, at any place.