Dispatch from a Baylor Summer Fellow | Paulina Yao Part 2
Becoming a Child Again
My thoughts often wander back to my childhood: a time when I was carefree, audacious, and full of wonder. Wonder embodies curiosity and curiosity drives questions. As a child, I would ask any questions I had, but not so much anymore.
Throughout my time doing research, I had many questions in the process of learning. What does this reagent do? Why is it only incubated for two hours? How come only one protein works? Similar questions also followed me throughout this summer, but these questions remained thoughts, living and dying in my head. I often had questions, but the fear of speaking out overwhelmed my curiosity. I fear about asking wrong questions. I fear about sounding incompetent. I fear about not having an answer. I lost the boldness I had as a child, and my wonder is nipped at the bud. However, I’ve quickly came to realize that when my questions go nowhere, I am stuck in place as well!
Just as Hank Green addressed the MIT graduating class of 2025, “Ideas do not belong in your head. They can’t help anyone in there.” Questions cannot be useful if we harbor them, they must be asked. During this summer, we asked a lot of questions in our B-TRUE journal club. Our questions bounced off each other and created new ones. We created a symphony of questions and thoughts. Because we intentionally created a space for discussion, we learned a lot from the questions that were asked and the ideas that came from them. I had to relearn how to ask questions with the confidence of a child. No fear, just wonder. Now that my questions are no long stuck in my head, neither am I.
But research is not a process that stops at forming questions. Our curiosity forms questions which are explored and evaluated, and through this process, we just might find something valuable, something practical along the way. We need more people who are willing to challenge the issues our world is facing. We need more people who are willing to take a step out. We need more people to ask questions. Because when we ask questions, we can move forward to find the answers.