Be Curious by Josephine

Be Curious by Josephine - July 2019 Scholarship Essay

From the moment I started talking, I started asking questions. Why is the sky blue? How am I able to walk and run? Why do bees exist? Why do we exist? I wanted to know about everything and anything.
My favorite time of day was “storytime”: either my mom or dad would sit on my bed and I got to ask one question about anything that was on my mind. Being a young child, the questions were not very complex, like “What’s a raccoon and what do they do?”, but, nonetheless, I wanted to know.
For my 5th birthday, instead of a Barbie or a stuffed animal, I received a microscope. Granted, this was no fancy microscope that you would see at school or in a lab (it was green, orange, and blue), but it allowed me to magnify prepared slides with insects and sections of leaves. A whole new world opened up for me. Things that were small and seemingly invisible were now visible; things that were smooth became textured; things that were transparent displayed intricate patterns too fine for the naked eye. And instead of being satisfied with this new world, my curiosity only grew.
Fast forward to now; my brain cannot seem to get enough. I want to know how Samuel Beckett crafted his masterpiece Waiting for Godot, what were the ethical dilemmas that had to be contemplated during the Cold War, or why a bundle of neurons is capable of controlling what I do and say or controlling the very fingers that type this essay.
The more I know, the more insatiable my curiosity becomes. That, to me, is having a passion for learning. With every answer, ten more questions arise and you want to investigate every one of those and their tangents.
Having a passion for education is the desire to spread that unquenchable curiosity. I love when young children ask me those ‘why’ questions, now being on the giving end of “storytime”; or sharing something I’m passionate about to an audience and having people ask subsequent, thoughtful questions; or when a kid I’m tutoring finally understands a concept and their eyes illuminate.
As a tutor, I chase that moment. When the student finally understands that concept, whether it be how to write punnet squares to interpreting an obscure poem. You see their eyes light up and you know you have succeeded. You don’t always achieve it. But it is the passion for education, for spreading that insatiable desire to learn, that keeps you going, keeps you chasing.