The Joys of Knowing

Did you know that the blob of toothpaste on your toothbrush actually has a name, called a “nurdle”? Yes, I’m not kidding, it is true. In fact, there was a lawsuit between Colgate and Glaxo over which company had the right to depict it.

Did you also know that nearly 60% of the human brain is made up of fat? Yes, fat. The one thing we all have a common misconception of - fat is bad. Actually, fat provides much-needed insulation and protection of organs for our body. There are many interesting things we have yet to discover in this world and real-time events we have yet to read about, and what better ways than to learn new things everyday by taking our learning into our own hands!

Many a times I wonder what's the point of going to school, for one the classrooms are hot, especially during the months of May to July when the sun shines the brightest and also because homework is inevitable. However, looking back at the 11 years of education I have had, for every piece of new knowledge acquired, my life pieces together as I understand more of why things around me are happening. As Hellen Keller once said, “Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge – broad, deep knowledge – is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low”. What this quote means is that with knowledge, one would be able to distinguish real from fake, and majestic from cheap. To put it in black and white, it simply means knowing good from bad.

In the past, my dad used to ask me what I had learnt in school that day, and he would actually listen to me. He would challenge me to look at issues from different angles and perspectives or sometimes challenge me to link two seemingly contrasting issues. This really helped set the foundation for me to understand new contexts and formulate new patterns about events in the world. Not only that, I was able to get a bigger picture of everything, understanding the way things worked and why they worked in certain ways.

There is much more to knowledge than what we learn in school (although the knowledge learnt is extensive) because the world is constantly evolving, changing, modernising. It is simply impossible for us to know everything, but remember that a little can go a very very long way.

With that said, never be content with what you know, adopt a curious mindset and desire to know more, for knowledge has a beginning but no end. So, never think that you know it all, for

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

~Socrates

Written by: Alexis Lee

Edited by: Tan Hui Ling