Curiosity: Reading for the Sake of It
05.04.24 | 29205
For Reflection:
How do the people you look up to relate to curiosity? Does their perspective on learning influence the way you learn, or want to learn?
Who in your life is curious? Who has a strong desire to learn? Describe them.
What is your relationship with this person like? How do their characteristics impact you?
Have you ever interacted with a particularly inquisitive child? How did their questions make you feel?
Did you ask lots of questions as a child? Has that habit changed over time? Would you consider yourself to be inquisitive now?
Who in your life is not particularly curious? What do they prioritize instead?
How does this person make you feel? Do you relate to them?
Is there anyone in your life whose curiosity rubs off on you? Is there anybody whose curiosity tires or drains you? What do you think causes these different responses?
As a kid, I used to spend a ton of my time reading. When my parents brought me to the library, I would regularly check out multiple books (5 or 6 at a time), read all of them in a week, and repeat that cycle the following Saturday. I simply loved to read, and I didn’t have responsibilities that took me away from that habit.
I would never claim that this was a solely positive experience for me. I rarely chose to spend time outside as a kid, largely because I would rather spend time in my own little world, reading my little books. I found joy in entering the stories of the characters in my books. I was naturally curious about the various lives and experiences they had, and I wanted to learn through their experiences, even if they were fictional.
Over time, my love of reading changed. I got older, and I read more for school. My summers became the time I would prioritize reading, and during the school year I let that habit fall off my to-do list. And then, in later high school, college, and graduate school, my love of reading became a chore, and I no longer spent time on it. As a Religious Studies and International Studies double major, and then as a graduate student in the History of Religion, I regularly read multiple full-length books in a week for my classes. Reading no longer became something that removed stress – rather, the thought of adding more reading to my plate sounded like the worst possible thing I could do for my mental health.
My curiosity changed during this time, too. I became much more interested in a few specific topics, and I strove to learn as much about those areas as possible. I became an expert in a few areas, and it took a lot of curiosity and energy to drive me through that process. In short, my curiosity led me toward depth, rather than breadth. And that made me a really good student.
It also made the transition out of academia… difficult. I had to re-learn how to be curious about a breadth of topics, and how to find energy and joy in curiosity for curiosity’s sake. In the past couple of years, I have prioritized reading a variety of genres, re-framing my internalized need to learn about something “intellectual” or something that “matters.” Now, I am intentionally reminding myself that my happiness matters – that, if reading about dragons and magic powers sparks my curiosity and excites me, those books can be an entry point to a practice (reading) that I love, but with which I have fallen out of habit.
Dominic has been a wonderful source of inspiration on this front, and one of my favorite aspects of our relationship is that we can talk about anything and everything with passion and excitement. He regularly watches informational YouTube (I’m talking about everything from the Six-Day War to London’s smog problem in the 30s to the history of the first pumpkin pie) simply because he finds it fun to learn about a variety of topics in the world around him.
I am certainly not at Dominic’s level with this broad curiosity, but over the past couple of years I have been working to remind myself that it is worth being curious for curiosity’s sake. And, it is worth being curious about the topics and hobbies that light you up. Without putting pressure on making sure the content you are learning is “important,” what can you learn – about yourself or about the world – by simply being curious?
Until next time, friends.