Questions

       “When is Black Friday? Is that Thursday?”, “Is Christmas the 25th?”, “Wait, which side is the left?”- we have all heard, or better asked, these ridiculous questions at one point or another in our lives. We have laughed at our friends for their stupidity, making a running joke that they won’t live down for a minimum of a few days. We joke at our friends’ expense, finding great amusement in these foolish questions. Or, being the one who asked, blush in embarrassment. In complete disbelief that those words just came out of your mouth, hiding behind your hands, doing anything to distract from what was just said.

       In moments such as these we experience great humiliation, even just for a moment. Being laughed at, asked “seriously?”, and reminded constantly of the moment you just want to forget. It is because of the embarrassment that we face that we are afraid to ask questions, afraid to look stupid. We hold in our curiosities, never getting the answers we seek. Typically, the dumb questions we ask come out as word vomit, with no actual thought before the question was asked- just a “brain fart”. Yet, these moments are the ones that keep us from asking the important questions because we are afraid to get laughed at.

       It is essential to ask questions- one will not get through this life without them, because that is how we learn. As children we are fearless, we question everything, even the littlest of details, constantly asking “why?”. The older we get the more apprehensive we get. At a certain age it is no longer cute to question everything a person says, rather they get annoyed and at the moment we give up a piece of ourselves that wants to know these answers. We become afraid to ask questions because we don’t want to annoy our elders, and later because we don’t want to get laughed at by our peers. There is a certain point in life when you no longer question everything, you no longer question the important things, and you stunt your learning.

      Chances are when you’re sitting in class unsure of what is going on, or unsure of how to handle a situation at work, even just wondering why, someone else is too. There is another person in that classroom who wants to question how to find x, there was an employee before you who dealt with the same situation, there is someone else wondering why, maybe right in front of you- you’re not the first person to ask that question. But, despite knowing that someone somewhere has wondered the same thing, asked the question you long to ask, we are still hesitant. Having felt that feeling of utter embarrassment- the blood rushing to your cheeks creating a bright red tint over the apple of your cheek, your face radiating heat, eyes beginning to water- we tend to hold in our questions. Our curiosities never satisfied, our questions never answered. Because of fear we walk through our daily lives without the knowledge we long to have, our minds full of unanswered questions.

      Life is full of what ifs, we are constantly wondering what would have happened had we asked that question. Would you have aced that math test knowing exactly how solve the problem? Would you have become employee of the month because you knew exactly what you were doing? Would you be completely satisfied with knowing why? Would the other three people in the room wondering the same thing have the answers the needed? Would they be living prosperously? There is no way to know, but you can always wonder “what if?”.

     They say that there is no such thing as a dumb question, we all know this to be false as we have all asked them. However, the dumb questions we ask often do not involve any thought before. There was not a moment where we wondered “Should I ask this question? Will I look stupid?”, the words simply fell out in the split second you weren’t thinking. So why do we allow these rare moments prevent us from asking the questions that really matter?