The reason why curiosity is a clear sign we are becoming someone better.
26 August 2018 | Siem Reap, Cambodia
One of the things that I believe has allowed me to do the things I’ve done, is that for me there is always something I can learn from others, regardless of their age, sex, background, beliefs, colour or nationality. I can learn from someone much younger, just the same as I can learn from someone much older. The only difference is what I learn. And if they think they can learn from me too, not because I’m smarter or better, but simply because of what I’ve gone through and experienced is different, I’m more than happy to share because good things go both ways.
Verbalizing and articulating my thoughts and listening to different views almost always sharpen them, and hearing my own words either makes me understand my own views better, or it makes me realize damn, I’m actually mistaken.
One thing I’ve realized, very clearly, is that the physical age of the other party has next to no impact on what I can learn from them. It’s their mindset first and foremost. Are they kind? Are they open-minded? Are they quick to judge? Are they insecure? Are they haunted by the ghosts of their past? Are they generally a good person or an asshole?
Even with assholes, there is something to learn - most useful of all is how not to be one, and how to stay calm in their presence.
There are always things others know and understand differently and more than us, simply because each one of us has different experiences in our lives. No two lives are the same, and therefore no two experiences and thoughts can ever be the same.
I can never be a millennial, but I can learn from them.
I can never be a husband who married at 25 and who has 3 kids now, but I can learn from them.
I can never be a woman or a single mother, but I can learn from them.
I can never be a grandfather who worked his fingers to the bone so that his grandkids now have what he never had before, but I can learn from them.
I’m not a Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Hindu, but I can learn from them.
If each of us is a book that is still being written, then the entire planet is one humongous library of books. It would be a damn shame to only read a few, or ours and ours alone.