Latina Leadership Lessons: Curiosity and Exploration

Do you ever wonder how the simple things happen?  Like, how does the alarm go off in the morning (in spite of the fact that we wish it didn’t), how is it that we’re able to turn on the radio and listen to, like, a bazillion stations, and how amazing is it that you can pick up your cell phone and make a call to your tia or abuela no matter where in the world she might be? (even if it also costs a gazillion dollars)

These are the amazing things that scientists bring to us, and so very much more.  Our roads, our cars, even our food and our very livelihoods are all mediated by science and technology.  And yet, we take so much of it for granted.  Or, at least I do.  I get frustrated when my computer’s slow, and heaven forbid I can’t get an internet connection when traveling!  How dare planes be late, the Tynenol doesn’t kick in fast enough, or the car sputters when I go to pull out of the driveway.

Almost every moment of our lives is brought to us by people who have asked questions about how things work, and then taken the answers and pushed to the next level.  This month San Diego is having its first ever San Diego Science Festival, and I’ve had the honor and privilege of meeting some incredible women in the sciences.  These women  ask themselves questions that wouldn’t occur to me to wonder about.   My mind just doesn’t turn that way.  Yet…

But the more time I spend thinking about all the incredible things that DO happen around us each day, the more grateful I am that I live NOW, in this time, with all the amazing opportunities that surround me, and the more question I ask.  Such as what am I curious about?  Why?  What questions are important to me and why do I want the answers?  If you don’t ask the questions, you can’t even have the conversation and sometimes simply asking the questions are enough.

Last week when I interviewed Ines Cifuentes, a Ph.D. in Seismology, she was telling us that one of her advisors in her Ph.D. program didn’t think that the question she wanted to research could be answered.  And we were kind of laughing together about it: Isn’t that the point?  We HAVE to ask the questions that we’re not sure have answers!  Otherwise, we can’t move forward.   What if no one asked the question about electricity, or phones, or automobiles!?!

So, I would encourage you, as will I, to ask yourself — where does your curiosity lie?  You may not be the one asking the question in the sciences — or maybe you are! — but whatever your questions are, keep asking them, and keep pushing to find the answers…