Lately I’ve been thinking about curiosity.
Not the kind that leaves you with twenty-seven open browser tabs and no answers.
(If you’ve ever started researching how much protein you should be eating and somehow ended up mentally redecorating your future beach cottage and curating an entire wardrobe of flowy dresses and flip-flops, you know what I mean.)
The kind that nudges you toward something you can’t quite explain.
The podcast episode you save because the title catches your attention.
The person you met at a friend’s backyard barbecue and find yourself wondering if they felt a connection too.
The career path that makes no sense on paper but keeps showing up in your thoughts.
The question that lingers longer than it should.
I’ve spent a lot of my life looking for certainty.
I wanted to make the right decision.
The smart decision.
The responsible decision.
Give me a plan, a spreadsheet, a pros-and-cons list, and I was ready.
Unfortunately, life has a habit of ignoring my spreadsheets.
Which, as someone who appreciates a good plan, has been both humbling and slightly annoying.
The older I get, the more I’m realizing that some of the most meaningful things in my life didn’t begin with a plan.
They began with curiosity.
A question.
A conversation.
A friendship.
A book.
A trip.
A simple “I wonder what would happen if…”
And while there’s nothing wrong with certainty, I’ve started to wonder if it’s sometimes overrated.
Lately, I’ve been paying closer attention to those moments.
Not because I know where they’re leading, but because they seem worth exploring.
At this stage of life, I find myself asking different questions than I used to.
Less “What am I supposed to do?”
More:
What do I know to be true?
Does it feel aligned?
Does it energize me or drain me?
Does it bring me joy?
Maybe that’s another way of saying I’m learning to trust my own voice.
Not the loud one that worries, plans, analyzes, and second-guesses.
The quieter one.
The one that’s been there all along.
I don’t have all the answers.
In fact, I think that’s the point.
Maybe curiosity isn’t just about finding answers.
Maybe it’s about being willing to trust yourself while you find them.
So this is me being curious out loud.
And seeing where it leads.