Addicted to Learning
WRITTEN FOR AN APPLICATION TO A CREATIVE AGENCY, JUNE 2025by Zoe Cohen
Everything I do, I do in the pursuit of knowledge. I will never not be learning.
As a child, I couldn’t sleep- I was too busy reading. My parents would wake up in the morning and find me still under the covers, flashlight in hand. My mom had to go to the library 3 times a week to keep up with my appetite. That hunger for words and other worlds turned into a love for writing, communication, and storytelling. It’s what helped me weave logic and careful language into college philosophy papers, and later, describe my artwork with clarity and sincerity.
When I got my first laptop, I couldn’t sleep- I fell into rabbit holes of strange history and cultural phenomena. If nothing else, those years of obsessive info-mining made me killer at trivia. After graduating, in a job market not too kind to someone with a philosophy degree, I taught myself animation. I obsessed over the details and how small motions made an illustration come alive. It wasn’t enough for a character to blink. She had to breathe, and her pupils needed to dilate. Experimenting with digital media led me to grad school at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where I tirelessly exercised my curiosity around design and technology. Now, I make animated video sculptures—works I’ve shown in galleries and festivals, and discussed with classes of aspiring artists.
After finishing grad school, I slept a lot- In school, learning was my job. Without it, I could feel my brain atrophy. I scrolled endlessly. Without a better alternative, I kept reaching for my phone. I don’t know exactly why I decided to learn Japanese—it seemed like the hardest thing I could try, and I think that’s the point. I had no history with language learning or Japanese media. But after a period of not learning enough, something in me snapped, and, obviously, the solution to that conundrum was to start learning Japanese.
Learning Japanese has been delightfully painful. Every sentence is a delicious little word puzzle, and I get to rebuild how I think from the ground up. I mine example sentences, tear into phrasing nuance, and hunt down the exact right word- just like I did with English as a philosophy major obsessed with clarity and tone. I even started using Japanese as a reward for getting through tasks I didn’t want to do.
I don’t have grand plans for what Japanese will lead to, and that’s exactly why I’ve stuck with it. The goal is the process. Every day I learn something new, and that’s enough.
These days, I write a diary in Japanese. Sometimes one sentence takes an hour. I could say it more easily in English, but I want to say it right, with the right nuance and rhythm. I’m an adrenaline junkie, but I don’t get my rush from cliffs- I get it from nailing a sentence.
I’ve learned to follow my brain when it lights up- even if I don’t know where it’s going. It’s always taken me somewhere good.
Everything I do, I do in the pursuit of knowledge. I will never not be learning.
As a child, I couldn’t sleep- I was too busy reading. My parents would wake up in the morning and find me still under the covers, flashlight in hand. My mom had to go to the library 3 times a week to keep up with my appetite. That hunger for words and other worlds turned into a love for writing, communication, and storytelling. It’s what helped me weave logic and careful language into college philosophy papers, and later, describe my artwork with clarity and sincerity.
When I got my first laptop, I couldn’t sleep- I fell into rabbit holes of strange history and cultural phenomena. If nothing else, those years of obsessive info-mining made me killer at trivia. After graduating, in a job market not too kind to someone with a philosophy degree, I taught myself animation. I obsessed over the details and how small motions made an illustration come alive. It wasn’t enough for a character to blink. She had to breathe, and her pupils needed to dilate. Experimenting with digital media led me to grad school at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where I tirelessly exercised my curiosity around design and technology. Now, I make animated video sculptures—works I’ve shown in galleries and festivals, and discussed with classes of aspiring artists.
After finishing grad school, I slept a lot- In school, learning was my job. Without it, I could feel my brain atrophy. I scrolled endlessly. Without a better alternative, I kept reaching for my phone. I don’t know exactly why I decided to learn Japanese—it seemed like the hardest thing I could try, and I think that’s the point. I had no history with language learning or Japanese media. But after a period of not learning enough, something in me snapped, and, obviously, the solution to that conundrum was to start learning Japanese.
Learning Japanese has been delightfully painful. Every sentence is a delicious little word puzzle, and I get to rebuild how I think from the ground up. I mine example sentences, tear into phrasing nuance, and hunt down the exact right word- just like I did with English as a philosophy major obsessed with clarity and tone. I even started using Japanese as a reward for getting through tasks I didn’t want to do.
I don’t have grand plans for what Japanese will lead to, and that’s exactly why I’ve stuck with it. The goal is the process. Every day I learn something new, and that’s enough.
These days, I write a diary in Japanese. Sometimes one sentence takes an hour. I could say it more easily in English, but I want to say it right, with the right nuance and rhythm. I’m an adrenaline junkie, but I don’t get my rush from cliffs- I get it from nailing a sentence.
I’ve learned to follow my brain when it lights up- even if I don’t know where it’s going. It’s always taken me somewhere good.