Throughout my life, I have had people try to teach me lessons and share wisdom so I can be better prepared for whatever may come next. Some of that wisdom or knowledge has been very helpful. However, some of it has also left me thinking, “What was the point of that?!” Applying the good knowledge has helped me, but sometimes, I feel like I learned the most from the mistakes or the “bad” wisdom.
One piece of “bad wisdom” came from my dad, when he tried to tell me, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” It didn’t make sense to me no matter which way I cut it. I tried to dispute this knowledge with him, saying that it was redundant and kind of dumb. Unshaken by my frustration and/or confusion, my dad stuck to his guns and repeated, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
As time went on, I continued to learn and grow. Here is some other people’s wisdom I immediately took to heart:
“When threading nuts and bolts, finger tighten a bit before using the drill or air gun. Then, you can’t cross thread and cause a bigger problem.”
“Don’t try to shift like one of those Fast & Furious guys; feel when the clutch is engaged.”
“Don’t study harder. Find a way that lets the material stick in your head.”
These are just a few of the things that I’ve picked up along the way. Dad’s ridiculous quote would always pop up in my mind, though. “You don’t know what you don’t know” came to me again a few months ago, but this time, I was not so quick to dismiss it. I thought about it for a while and just let it sit. Then, the mental light bulb lit up brightly.
I remembered the prerequisite courses I had taken in undergrad and the courses I had taken so far at ICO. While the amount of studying I did and the knowledge I gained in those classes was great, it was only a tip of the iceberg. The biggest culprits are physics, anatomy, and ocular disease (I can’t believe the multitude of things that can go wrong with the eye!)
It took me a while, but I figured out what my dad meant. I called him to tell him I figured it out. In short, the response I got back was, “Well, yeah.” Now armed with this “bad wisdom,” I feel more comfortable with the fact that I don’t know all the answers and that I probably never will. What I know now is that I can ask others for help or guidance when I just don’t know something.