One thing that I find really enjoyable and encouraging about studying philosophy is that it isn't a "closed" process. What I mean is that there isn't a specific trajectory one has to take, and there isn't a specific destination that everyone has to get to in order to study the field in the "right" way. That's a big difference from, say, chemistry, math or accounting, where you learn the material in a particular order and there is a certain set of concepts and techniques you have to master in order to be qualified in those fields.
Philosophy is more like a developmental process--different people start and end in different places, take different paths, travel at different rates. And, ideally, keep doing it forever.
All of which is just to say, the process of having your basic ideas jostled and maybe overturned is one of the great things about philosophy, since it affords you the opportunity to CHOOSE what you believe and how you will act. Most people don't have the benefit of that process. For most people, beliefs and behaviors are unconscious things that "you just do." There's a good deal of courage needed to really examine your beliefs and be willing to change them in light of evidence and arguments. It is really true that old habits die hard.
I remember as an undergraduate having daily (if not hourly) "aha" moments where I was able to see things in a new way. I'm happy to report that those cognitive shifts still happen for me at least once a week, even in my "old age". It is fun to see it happening for the students in this class, too.
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