Asking the obvious

When discussing the possibility of a stupid question we have a few things to consider. 1: Is this a question I can figure out on my own with just a little more thinking? and 2: I really need help deciding my opinion on this and any kind of guidance would work. A lot of outgoing not anxious people want a quicker answer and they will choose number two. I personally take the first route a lot of the time because I become anxious right as I am about to ask a question and later figure it out. I think this has made me more of a critical thinker and has been helpful in a bunch of situations like Social studies class with my teacher who didn’t talk much or ask questions that were obvious at work.

The reasons why I didn’t ask questions were because I was scared the question had already been answered and I wasn’t paying attention because I was so focused on the question and also because I felt as if everyone was going to scoff at me and think of me less because of what I thought was a stupid question. But a time when I actually worked up the courage was when I was when I was in Social Studies class. We were doing current events and at the time I had no clue how to search for articles. This led to me becoming frustrated and I felt completely lost and helpless. It took me half of the class to work up the courage to ask my not-so-intimidating teacher the “stupid question” on how to search for articles. I felt ridiculous and embarrassed at first but he had no hesitation in helping me, he wasn’t laughing at me or making me feel stupid, and that reassured me and made me feel better. I am constantly trying to hide myself when teachers are asking questions because I have a fear of being wrong and being wrong means that I can be thought of as less than. That’s how I feel when I have an urge to question people and topics because I just don’t want to be wrong and I think that is why I hold back on asking “stupid questions”. When we were done with the current events I learned how to search for articles and how to confidently ask for help because without help from my teacher that current event wouldn’t have been finished in time.

My teacher that was quiet himself had started coming around the classroom asking each of us if we needed any help and I of course being shy and refusing help most of the time said no. I regretted it instantly so I then had to pace how long I had to wait until I could ask for help without seeming like I wasn’t paying attention or was being ignorant towards him. I feel like he would understand my absence in asking questions because he didn’t say much of anything except for our instructions at the beginning of class and then he sat quietly to himself. I wonder if that had an effect on my participation in that class. I always considered myself a person who kept to myself but I realized that yes, I was a majority of the problem but at the same time I had teachers that weren’t constantly talking to the class and I feel like that makes it more open to discussion and questions rather than just saying a few words and going to sit down.

In conclusion, it’s not that big of a deal to ask a question even if it is stupid. I felt so much clarity after asking that it made me think about how dumb I was sounding in my own head and that I shouldn’t keep stupid questions to myself no matter how simple or complex it is. I think that if I were to have any question nowadays, I ask it because I’m not afraid anymore to be wrong

“Work, Typing, Computer – Credit to https://myfriendscoffee.com/” by John Beans is licensed under CC BY 2.0.