Traffic Lights

I personally don’t believe in a question being categorized as stupid. I think that all questions are good to ask because questions are very important to understanding and learning. Asking questions without fear is good because the more you ask the more you learn. I’ll tell you a story about a time I had a question and didn’t want to ask because I thought it would make me look dumb. I was just a little kid sitting in a car next to my brothers watching my mom drive around town, If I had to guess my age at the time I would say that I was around 11 or 12 years old.

Me and my mom and my brothers were on our way to the grocery store, and we had just stopped at an intersection right by Hannaford when the light had turned green I watched us move and go straight and I saw the cars facing us go in the other direction. And I was very confused that they were driving past us because I thought that we were the only car lane at the intersection that had a green light. I thought that only one section of the intersection could have a green light and the other sections had a red light and had to wait their turn for the light to turn green. At this moment I was feeling really confused about the situation, and at the same time, I was feeling kind of dumb about it. I was feeling this way because my brothers knew so much about the rules of the road, and I felt like I had no clue what was going on.

I was really confused on why both sections went at the same time and why more than one light was green, but I was afraid to ask because I didn’t want to look dumb in front of my brothers because they were taking drivers-ed and knew the rules of the road well. So I thought they were just going to laugh at me and give me crap about it. So I just decided that it would be best to not ask and keep quiet about the topic. I wish I would have asked why There are more than one green lights at the same time, but the fear of my brothers laughing at me about it was really holding me back. If I was in a position like this today, I would just ask the question because I have learned that questions have gotten me pretty far in life, and you have nothing to lose if you ask a question. The worst that’s going to happen is you are either going to learn or not.

I noticed that asking questions in my classes are what got me to pass and not fail, I know for sure that if I wouldn’t have asked questions I would probably still be doing work from years past. If I was not to ask questions in my high school chapter I feel like I would have failed so many classes, especially my junior year in math class. This was a tough class for me because the way that the teacher taught it was good, but it left you with some questions to ask in order to understand what he meant.

This is a topic that I reflect on a ton, I believe there is no such thing as a dumb question. All questions should be treated equally, You can’t call a question dumb because people use questions to try to learn and understand. And if you think someone trying to learn and understand something is dumb than you are pretty foolish. I myself ask a lot of questions. Asking questions has helped me become a better student, and in some cases someone asking just one question could change their entire life. Another thing I can take away from my choice on not asking my question is that it’s okay to ask questions and it’s also okay to be nervous and not want to ask questions. But sooner or later, in life you are going to have things you need to know and it’s going to get to a point where you have to ask that question in order to learn. I have learned that when I have a question I’m going to be responsible and ask without fear So the next time you have an important question, but you are worried that you will sound dumb, just ask the question.

Photo by Dan Guimberteau on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA