Snapshot 6 by Matthew Glenn

Is everything in life temporary? Sometimes, there will be people that give complicated answers to a simple question. Maybe their answers rely on past experiences, something they’re holding onto or just common sense. After racking my brain for hours, the most logical answer I could think up is, change must occur in order to determine if something is temporary.

I like to think that great things will be held onto for life, and the bad will be temporary. In reality most of the time that isn’t the case. People and places seem to always come and go, however I believe certain things can be held onto forever. Every so often we may lose sight of those things, but something reminds us. Then, the motivation returns and we remember why.

Over my life many things have changed, but the one thing I have managed to hold onto this far is my curiosity. Since I was a child, I have had an overwhelming desire to gain knowledge of as much as possible. Curiosity has lead me to want to understand how things work, such as the government, stock market, politics, the criminal justice system and many more. It has also treated me well when it comes to academics, since I have always like to learn as much as possible.

There was a short period of time I had lost touch with my curiosity. I had graduated high school about eight months prior and was indecisive about continuing on to college, but I knew if I went, I wanted to study something that allowed me to continually learn, or research to satisfy my curiosity. I was working a lot at the time at a dead end job that I hated, without opportunities for advancement. I am a workaholic, so the only upside to the position was the pay. Since I was working as much as I could, I began to eliminate the things I loved to do in my spare time. I became distant with friends and family, after a few months passed I realized I had lost my motivation to learn and be curious. Things that would spark my interest no longer were, and it remained that way for a while longer.

Next, something happened out of the blue. It was morning and I was just getting up for the day. The television was up unusually loud when I had stepped out of my room, so I looked around, but no one else was home. I remember hearing something to do with the S&P 500 on the T.V and it instantly grabbed ahold of me. I kept asking myself “What is the S&P 500?” For some reason it was like a switch had been flipped in my mind and I found myself in front of my computer. I was researching and learning all about the stock market. I spent quite a bit of time on Google before realizing what I was doing, but once I did I was thrilled. My curiosity was back. I began to think about life, I thought about the fact that I wanted more than what my job provided. Within two days I had applied for OSU, then a week later quit my job to take a different position that would accommodate my class schedule, when it was time.

Now I am pleased with the way my life is going. I made a change to make something good become lifelong, and make something bad become temporary.  My curiosity has been sparked, my motivation still pushes me every day, and I no longer feel trapped.

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