Best Of Week: Curiosity Is The Key

Although there were a lot of interesting insights and ideas that we talked about in class this week, the one that really caught my attention was a piece from the article "Sea of Information". In this article, Andrea Barrett writes on page 11 about how "[She'd] learned to follow where the spark of interest leads [her]" and goes on to say how these little sparks are "full of potential, charged and fresh and inspiring". I think that this idea that Barrett presents to us is very important because it gives us some insight on creative minds. From this quote, one could easily articulate how Barrett is trying to tell us that it is curiosity that drives a person to follow that sudden spark of interest in something. Barrett is saying in order for a person to have a creative personality they not only need to be open to new ideas and beliefs, but they also need to learn to follow their curiosity because that, in the end, is what leads them to do great things.
After reading this one quote by Barrett, it made me realize how many people end up doing exactly the opposite. When someone suddenly gets a spark of interest in something new and mysterious, most people, including myself, just end up completely ignoring it. If a person would actually take the initiative to find out more about what they wanted to learn about and were interested in, that person would have the potential to create (or even understand at the very least), something powerful and worth knowing. However, that is not the case regarding curiosity.
If I were to get nothing out of my senior year here except for one crucial insight, I would definitley want to learn this piece of information. I think this idea about being open to everything and everyone and following your curiosity no matter where it takes you is an idea that everyone needs to incorporate into their daily lives. To be honest, this is one of the main ideas out of humanities that I think is going to stick with me forever. Obviously forever is a strong word, but an insight like this is extremely hard to forget and once you have learned something of this degree, it's hard for someone to withhold themselves from it and not try to use it. That is why i think that I'm going to try it out, starting with my mindbook.