Let Curiosity Be Your Guide.
"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."
When I was in grade 6, on the very first page of my geography textbook, an introductory passage had mentioned about how the model of solar system resembles the (Rutherford's) atomic model, as i read through, it left an remark in my head. The idea of their similarity, even though not scientifically precise[1], made me curious as child, it gave me the feeling that the world had patterns to its existence[2]. Turn to next page it had method of measuring time using sundial. This simple idea of using shadow of the sun casted by a stick to measure time excited me as well. I remember waiting for our teacher to take us out to perform it, but as with most of the dull schools it never happened.
Another thing which i remember is my father buying me toys. I had this awe and wonder of the mechanism inside of them, i used to break RC cars, trains just to check in what's inside them. The motors, the lights fascinated me to the point where even just connecting wires to them and running them put joy in my heart. I made my own collection by removing the parts of the toys, using them to build silly things like vaccum cleaner using the back cover of a broom, making another toy RC F1 car using cardboard to mimic the aerodynamic aerodynamic design of the originals i saw on TV. The interest faded away, the desire to tinker around was supressed by assignments and exams. Grades were the only thing our teachers expected us to focus on. The silence of those teachers who saw children as disrespectful impeded our intuition and curiosity. Sometimes it is also the act.
"School was pretty hard for me at the beginning. My mother taught me how to read before I got to school, and so when I got there I really just wanted to do two things: I wanted to read books, because I loved reading books, and I wanted to go outside and chase butterflies. You know, do the things that five-year-olds like to do. I encountered authority of a different kind than I had ever encountered before, and I did not like it. And they really almost got me. They came this close to really beating any curiosity out of me."
Past high school i saw some content on astronomy, things started to kick in, the lingering desire i had to find out answers for the fundamental questions i had were coming back to me. The type of questions every kid has. Seeing Carl Sagan describe the beauty and grandioseness of the universe in an articulate and poetic way in his series The Cosmos intrigued me and revitalized the kid in me. I started to read books and blogs, watching videos, listening to podcasts, took a course on cosmology[3]. My interests started to branch off into physics, maths, philosophy, biology i had an appetite for more questions and seek more novel topics.
Fast forward now, when I look back, I have come a long way. I have a fairly good understanding of biological, cultural, and digital evolution, and there's much more to do. Much more questions to be asked, answers to be sought. This all is not totally new; it has been the quest of humanity since the dawn. So let this be your message to ask more questions, chase your curiosity and continue to be a part of that long standing history of humans who pondered and seeked beautiful explanations rooted in logic and truth.