I'm graduating soon.

I look at myself four years ago and I hardly recognize that person. I'm completely different. Better in some ways, worse in others. But transformed nonetheless. Grateful and humbled at the growth I've experienced. Yet somewhat wistful as I wave a final goodbye to the naivety and simple-mindedness of my youth.

What a sheltered life I once led. I used to think I was more...I dunno, "worldly"?...than my peers all throughout high school - in truth, I really had experienced more difficulties than most at my age. I was educated at an early age in the things of this world that most people don't experience until much later in life. Whatever crap I dealt with at an early age, I was always grateful for how it shaped my character, and just how much my early life experiences (however difficult at the time) prepared me for responsibility and intelligent decision making and success. I always had a good grasp on reality. I don't want to say that I was jaded. Perhaps a better description is that I was maybe more realistic and logical and knowledgeable than most people in my circles when it came to real life outside the protective bubble we were brought up in.

It would be pretty easy to stand on my high horse and bask in the knowledge I have accumulated over the course of my undergrad career. I've learned a lot about the world. Society, culture, biological life, human behaviour, different perspectives and world views, religion, science, myself.

Most of all, I've learned that I have so much more to learn.

As such, my outlook on life has changed more than I could have ever imagined.

I'm graduating soon. On June 7, I'll receive two pieces of paper, commemorating my educational endeavors over the past few years. All my studying. All my research and paper writing. All my lab work. All my critical thinking. All my debates and discussion with my peers. Meh. When it comes down to it, they're really just two pieces of paper. That's not what I'll be taking from this experience.

I heard someone say recently that once they hit the age of 25, they had pretty much figured life out. That was their "peak." And since then, they hadn't really changed all that much; on the contrary, they noted that it was the world around them which was changing.

My biggest lesson that I'll be taking from my education is that I don't have it all figured out. Not even close. And I hope I never, ever, EVER think that I do. How can a person grow if they have nothing left to learn? If a person's viewpoint or perspective or opinion is so set in stone, that nothing can ever change it?

That's a scary place to me.

High school teaches you to ask, "What? Who? When? How?" in a useless exercise that demands students to simply regurgitate information without any regard to where that information came from.

I've learned to ask "Why?" "How do we know this?" "Why do we believe this?"

If we keep asking only what, who, when, and how, then of course we'll come to know everything eventually! Those answers are fixed facts. They don't usually change much. But asking why...that's the hard question. It's complicated. Confrontational. Uncomfortable. Intellectually demanding. But worth it.

I may forget all the intricacies of the hundreds of biochemical pathways I've memorized. But I hope that I won't forget to keep an open, humble mind and continually ask, "Why?" when critically evaluating my beliefs, opinions, experiences, and perspectives.

Holy crap, end philosophical rabbit trail rant.

Alternatively titled: The birth of a skeptic.