Curious by Amber

Curious by Amber - January 2018 Scholarship Essay

As a child, I wanted nothing more than to grow up to be Nancy Drew, the daring heroine in the classic mystery book series- dreaming to solve riddles, uncover buried treasures, and question everything. I carried around a “sleuthing kit” filled with fingerprint dust, colorful band-aids, and an ever-dirty, too-scratched-to-be-useful magnifying glass, dragging my friends out to the forest to investigate for signs of Bigfoot and Mothman. At some point, I got the idea that the amount of Scooby Doo graham crackers I ate would be equivalent to my ability to solve mysteries, so, understandably, I ate a lot.

However, I was approached recently, years far gone from my childhood sleuthing days, by someone who told me that I reminded them of Nancy Drew, and I realized how extraordinarily proud eight-year-old me would be. I may no longer live by the mantra “What would Nancy Drew do?” but I realized that that’s because I don’t have to. In any conversation, I still bring questions- an everlasting cascade of “why’s” and “what if’s.” I still accept that there is a mystery in everything, and there is never a reason to curb your inquiries; curiosity is inherently a virtue.

Today, I seemingly know something about everything: how to code notes in Caesar cipher, or detect microexpressions, or braid bracelets, or bake crème brûlée. Through my inexhaustible questioning and eccentric expertise, I aspire to ignite curiosity in others, to kindle a fire to catalyze their knowledge of every topic known to mankind, to make them ask “why?” and never cease to wonder until they hear a reply. I’m just your local girl detective, fervently curious of what college will be like, of what I will learn there, of who I can inspire, and of who can inspire me. They say curiosity kills the cat, but who ever said that we were cats, anyway?