What Makes Me Tick? Satisfying My Curiosity

Please Share This!

PLEASE NOTE: Melody is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

This post contains affiliate links. When you click on these links and make a purchase, I earn a percentage of the sale which allows me to keep providing you great content for free on this website.

I was stumbling over this question, not knowing what direction to go in, so I worked on something else. As I was researching my great great aunt’s employment for the WPA in 1940, I started asking myself questions about her situation. How would a woman in her 50s or 60s find sewing work through the WPA? Before you knew it I had 5 tabs going with histories of WPA sewing rooms. That’s when I knew the answer to “what makes me tick”.

How Does This Answer The Question “What Makes Me Tick”?

clock ticking — Learning makes me tick mohssinechnaf77 / Pixabay

As I was actively procrastinating, it struck me. One of the things that makes me tick is an insatiable curiosity. I have a deep seated need to know, to find answers, to learn not only who, where, and when, but why and how.

Lots of people find a new bit of information and do a “whatever!”. They move on. Not me.

It doesn’t matter if it’s “how did they build the pyramids” or “why was so and so traded by the A’s?” I’m a pondering fool. Once I start pondering, then I start searching for answers.

It’s why I love documentaries, how tos, history, and, of course, genealogy. The internet was made for me!

I sometimes wonder what kind of crazy profile would be put together about me if it was based on my web searches. Who was the first female pilot? Who was the short stop for the Dodgers under Lasorda? Why don’t you see black squirrels in the Bay Area? Why do beans give you gas?

If my great great aunt was employed sewing by the WPA, where might she have done that work? Google sewing WPA Oakland.

Yep! That’s me!

I was Born Like This

my first day photo — My mom recently said “You weren’t very cute that first day, were you?” LOL

Technically, I was born like most other babies. But, deep inside I must have been thinking “Hey, what happened to my womb?” “What’s this diaper stuff?” “Who are all these people?” I know as a child I drove my parents crazy with my questions. Why? How? How Come? I was born this way or so the Lady Gaga song goes.

Back in prehistoric times, before the internet, we had a big ol’ blue set of encyclopedias, a gigantic book of children’s knowledge, and a world atlas. I poured over them every time I had a question and sometimes just because. I’m weird like that.

I was always at the public library, too. How I love libraries!

Keeping Your Brain Alive

light bulb ideas — When we continue to learn, we continue to grow qimono / Pixabay

The thirst for knowledge…curiosity keeps us alive and growing. Without curiosity, we become stagnant.

Some are happy not knowing. They can watch the news and not wonder what the underlying causes of a protest are. They don’t have to take a photo and ask around to see if anyone know what the flower is that they found on their walk. They don’t care why sloths walk so slow.

I never thought of that one before. Why do sloths walk so slow? I better end this post so I can do a search and find out. (Pssst…it’s because they have a very slow metabolic rate. You’re welcome!)

[Note: I am participating in the blog prompt series The Book of Me, Written by You created by Julie Goucher at the Angler’s Rest blog. The project runs for 15 months with new prompts each week. This month’s prompt is “What Makes Me Tick?” Read my first post “Who Am I? 20 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Me“]