Curiouser & Curiouser
As a child, we often explore abstract notions of the world, naturally questioning complex subjects that elude us. We want to understand how the world works, and the strange complicated symbiotic relationship with us. We usually turn to the adults, the all-knowing beings to us at the time, holding a vast pool of knowledge that would solve our confounding problems. But adults often bat away the flurry of questions — with a quick answer or term it as the child’s inquisitive phase.
What is it about growing up, that makes us lose the ability to question? There are a few likely ways to answer it. Our monotonous routine of everyday life doesn’t need curiosity to lead it, to revolve around it. Rather, we focus on tasks that ensure that we sustain the lifestyle that we lead. I realized this transition as soon as I stepped into my teens when pursuing and outlining a viable career path and maintaining good grades to secure a potential future became the priority. My days spent envisioning what lay ahead with a sharp focus on tried-and-tested methods.
It was in seventh grade at art class, that curiosity became a friend again and I departed from seeing the world and my future as a straight line. It was a random shape on my art sheet, with only a guiding instruction to draw anything that came to mind. Sparking my imagination, I had a thousand iterations of that shape, molding eventually into a caricature of the human face. It ignited the curiosity I thought childhood had chased away as I was set to pursue the conventional path that many before me had trodden. However, it left an everlasting effect of leaving the norm behind.
Curiosity is what led me to my love for understanding behavior, to comprehend the endless possibilities of what made people tick, and instilled the need for me to unearth stories. It shaped my career, a field brimming with creativity within every facet. It drove me to become a Maverick — to discover an exciting purpose, a role that I look forward to fulfilling. It’s thrilling to discover myriad perspectives of the new people I will meet in this journey — just letting me peek into perhaps their interpretations of differently drawn shapes, life, and everything in between.
And hey, maybe curiosity didn’t kill the cat, but convention did.
