Lifelong Learner

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When I was five, someone informed me of the startling fact that it is the male seahorse, not the female, that gives birth. It was the first fact I can remember learning, probably because of how much it shocked me at the time. The next day I went to school, eager to share my new knowledge with everyone I met. Starting with my teacher as she helped me out of my pink, puffy jacket and moving on to conversations on the swing set and surreptitious whispers during naptime, I quickly ensured that every child and teacher in my pre-school class was well-informed about this reproductive quirk unique to the seahorse.

The website of a famous liberal-arts college cites a quote from alumnus David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest: “’’ I read,’ I say, ‘I study and read. I bet I’ve read everything you’ve read. Don’t think I haven’t. I consume libraries. I wear out spines and ROM-drives. I do things like get in a taxi and say, “The library, and step on it.”’” I wish I could return to my five-year-old self with this quote in hand. I agree wholeheartedly with Wallace’s attitude towards learning. I have always sought knowledge from any available source—from the time I first started reading at age four, to later years, when a teacher’s fleeting allusion to a historical mystery, such as Amelia Earhart, Easter Island, and Uri Geller, would send me rushing to the library for answers, my size six Nikes performing the task of Wallace’s taxi. My insatiable need for knowledge has led me to work in various environments—for instance, I have interned in Thailand where I engaged in comprehensive lectures and discussions examining modern international global issues, bioethics and medical bioethics, visited various sites and hospitals, including one that focused ...

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...erfect example of the true beauty inherent to the exchange of knowledge.

As a five-year-old, told an arbitrary fact about a sea creature, I became stubborn in my insistence at sharing it with everyone I saw. And to the inevitable incredulity some classmates expressed upon hearing this truth, I growled. In the intervening years, I have learned the value of different viewpoints and the ways in which fact and opinion inevitably blend. I want you to hear me, but I am also interested to hear why you disagree. I want you to change my opinion because, and even if you do not succeed, I want your attempts at persuasion to be as passionate as mine. I want you to take what you learned from me and pass it on to others; I will do the same with what I learn from you.

I hope, one day, to have a long conversation with Mr. Wallace. I believe we would have much to talk about.

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