All Questions Are Good Ones

Sometimes it can be hard to ask questions. Maybe it is because you feel less smart for not knowing the answer. There are many things that can make asking questions hard, between feelings of pride or even because they genuinely thought they knew the right answer. Maybe it is hard because you should already know the answer and you are scared to ask again. Either way, no matter what, it is always better to be safe rather than sorry. This is a story about a young boy who did not ask questions and made horrible mistakes. Mistakes that got him into deep trouble.

Once upon a time, there was a boy who went with his father to buy a new four wheeler. They went to their local power sports shop to pick one up. They wandered around this shop, looking at multiple machines until eventually they found the one. They went to a salesman and went through all of the hassle of buying the machine, which seemed to last for hours. After they purchased it, they loaded it up into the truck and drove home. All the way back to their house, this book only had one thing on his mind, which was to ride this beautiful machine all day and all evening until it was finally time to go to bed. Once they went home, the two of them were working in the garage. The boy could not stop looking at the new four wheeler in the yard. After a few hours, he gained the courage to ask his father if he could ride the four wheeler. The father said yes and then showed the boy how to operate it. After explaining, he asked the boy if he understood. The boy did not understand, but still proceeded to say yes. He then hopped on the four wheeler and took off. It was this moment, when he took off, that he had doomed himself. He had remembered everything about making the machine go forward. The only thing that was not retained was how to stop the machine. The boy did not want to ask because he was afraid that his father would change his mind and say that he was not ready to ride. So he just started riding.

After riding and seeing how fast he could go, the boy was thrilled by the wind rushing past him and the feeling he got and how that feeling got better the faster he went. He was so distracted by this feeling that he forgot to learn how to slow this thing down. The boy stopped paying attention and averted his eyes to the beautiful sunset. Keep in mind that this machine is still moving at probably 15 miles per hour. Once he was done looking at this sunset, the boy looked forward once again and saw that he was headed straight for the side of his house and he had approximately no time to learn how to stop the machine. Even though the lever to use the brake was right in front of his face, the panic took over and any hope of learning how to use the brake in that moment was gone. This boy hit the side of his house because he neglected to ask how to stop. He then started to panic because he knew that he was going to be in trouble for driving a four wheeler directly into the side of the house. His father came over and at first he seemed angry but then started laughing at the mistake. He then taught his son how to use the brake and allowed him to keep riding the four wheeler. That boy may have been me. I drove into that house. The message of this story is that if you do not know, just ask or you will make yourself look stupid. No question is a stupid one, it is good to clarify everything if you are not one hundred percent sure. Sometimes, not asking questions can either get someone into trouble, or it can make things go wrong. Sometimes people are steered the wrong way, blindly believing something that someone tells you is not the best choice. Question everything. 

Featured Image Citation:

“Finger face with a question” by Tsahi Levent-Levi is marked with CC BY 2.0.