I was supposed to post an entry on my blog this morning, but that would’ve required me being a grown-up and sitting down and writing it. I sat down to write it yesterday, but writing it yesterday was, well, boring. I tried guilting myself by saying such life affirming things as, “You suck. What’s the matter with you? People are picking fields in 3rd world countries and you can’t sit and type a few letters?”
This made me contemplate fields, which led me to think about crops, which rendered thoughts on making soup. Making soup seemed much more interesting than penning immortal words of wisdom. After 6 hours of soup-making research, 3 hours of grocery shopping, and 1 hour of actual soup making, I was excessively grouchy. I had woken that morning to complete one major task-write a blog entry- and, once again, failed miserably.
I did what all healthy, high-functioning adults do; I immediately looked for someone or something to blame. I decided it was ADHD. I took several tests online. I answered “yes” to every question. Disgusted, I slammed my computer shut to go switch laundry….which I never got to because I got sidetracked for two hours watching a Netflix documentary on ADD overmedication.
That’s when it hit me. I don’t have ADHD. I have an acute, overly sensitive, curiosity problem. I’m curious about everything. What’s happening around me, who is saying what, why things are the way they are, what’s new in fashion, what’s new in my checking account (nothing), what’s new in the middle east, new, new, new, what, why, when. I have to know. (Unless it’s something like learning how to use proper grammar in the above paragraph…Not so curious. Don’t really want to know…)
When I was in elementary school, a kid who loved to learn new things was celebrated. Somewhere between the age of innocence and the age of over responsibility, this endearing quality now requires ADHD medication. Subdue oneself to a disinterested state in order to produce completed tasks in a mature-like manner. Boresnoringzzzzzzz.
If you were to take the last 48 hours and size me up with a real job-working, task-completing, responsibility-driven, priority-gifted, put-together person, I would lose…badly. BUT, if you were to ask the two of us who invented ranch dressing, why “Pompeii” was only one step up from a bad harlequin romance novel, the mineral content on homemade soup stock, and how to get that moldy smell out of laundry, I may in fact be in the running for “overachiever”. That’s only a fraction of all the new things I learned over the last 48 hours.
When it comes to life accomplishments, you could say curiosity has gotten the best of me. With all the things I’ve learned about life, relationships, and random things of this world, I prefer to say that curiosity IS what’s best of me. Science agrees. New experiences are a key secret ingredient to happiness. Without curiosity, I’d most likely be successful, polished, and admirable-and unhappy.
Call it ADHD, irresponsibility, an artistic personality-you can call it what you want. I call it curiosity, and curiosity is one of my best-kept secrets to staying young and happy.
Stacy Pede
rson is a Colorado based Humorist and Funny Motivational Speaker who is incessantly insecure with a chronic Thai Food / Netflix binge habit.