Over the years, I have found inspiration in a number of sources; my parents, of course, certain teachers, coaches, etc… but last summer, unexpected inspiration appeared in my nannying job. Mila, a four-year-old girl from London, brought a perspective to my attention that I had somehow lost sight of in my journey to a high school diploma. As a student, I had become so focused on my grades, scores, and activities, in an attempt to be admitted to a university, that I had forgotten what it was like to be inspired by inherent curiosity.
The nannying job took place in a small, simplistic beach town on the Cape of Massachusetts where I have spent each summer since I was born. After eighteen years and seventeen summers in the town, I have become familiar with its cottage-lined streets, but this past year is when I was reminded that my family's vacation spot was writhing with opportunity for discovery. Mila and her brother, Charlie, were advanced, yet assuming. They were operating at three grades above their age level but could still spend hours fascinating over sand crabs and a rusty piece of tackle.
The beach was more than a place to play in the water, it was a place where Mila could learn without limits. It was a place where she could understand the severity of Lyme disease after friends suffered tick bites, where she could develop her ability to tack and jibe in rough waters, where she could learn how to tie a mooring hitch, and where she could pull creatures out of the water and learn how they survive.
I think there is something fundamentally beautiful about satisfying such a natural curiosity and I appreciate that Mila was able to remind me of this. For the ten or so months that surround summer, we are fed with the necessary content included in school curriculum, but why should we let this hinder our natural curiosity? Why should we wait until June comes around when we are released from the constraints of school, to engage with the world?
That summer of watching Mila and her brother has instilled in me this value, of natural curiosity, and no matter how tight my schedule may be as a college student, I plan to never push this curiosity away as I may have done high school. I hope to encompass it in everything I do and passionately learn about things I am truly interested in. I hope to take the chances to go to different places, meet new people, and engage in entirely different worlds than the one I have become so familiar with. I hope to take inspiration from Mila's thought processes in the most simple of situations and steer clear of any predefined paths.
Mila, a four-year-old girl, brought perspective back into the life I was leading. I was so focused on the next steps that I forgot to just take a moment and appreciate and explore where I was in the present. No matter how regimented life becomes, I now know that to truly appreciate the world I must always leave time to satisfy the fascination that Mila held when she was rooted in the sand with a fishing net in grasp.
