Explaining My Curiosity as an Autodidact

And why I learn differently than most people

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

I’ve never really understood that I’m “different.” I would just say that I’m curious and that I let my curiosity take me wherever it wants. I’m along for the ride, and the ride can be fun.

I only understood how different I was when I met Alfred, who is super smart. There is not a math problem he can’t solve or a chess move he hasn’t understood as the one most likely to win him the match.

I joined his chess club, and I did awful. I couldn’t see what he could, and it made me feel stupid. Worst of all, I wasn’t curious about a thing. How can that be? I asked.

I also don’t do very well in school. I do well enough, but my parents always say that I’m smarter than people realize.

“Joey, you just don’t fit the mold. You learn what you want to learn when you want to learn it. We call that being an ‘autodidact.’”

As an autodidact, I now had to look that word up in the dictionary. Short and simple, Merriam-Webster says that an autodidact is a “self-taught person.”

Woohoo, I fit in!

I was so glad to have a name for how I think. I get curious about things like:

• How to make the best chocolate cookie possible, which includes, by the way, leaving eggs at room temperature.

• How did people measure time way back when, and did every second count like it does today?

• If I do, as my mom suggests, and join the marching band at school, which instrument should I learn and why?

• When was the first book written, and who read it?

There is information to be discovered in every corner of my life.

With just a little bit of research, I learned that some of our most famous people were autodidacts. Google told me that Albert Einstein, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Edison were autodidacts. And there were many more.

Now, I’m not saying I’m as smart as them. I am only saying that if you are the kind of person who asks and answers your own questions and who lets your curiosity travel, you can do some awesome things.

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How I explained this to Alfred

So Alfred eventually got that I am smart in my own way. He even respects me now (well, we are best friends) and is always asking me lots of questions. Last summer, on one of our dog walks, Alfred asked me if I was bored. The summer seemed long to him.

I’ll share our conversation, which I wrote down afterward. I frequently document things.

Joey: Am I bored? Not even a bit. I always have something to fill my time. I fix things. I go onto YouTube to see how things are made. I read about things I want to know something about, which is not the same as what our teachers want us to know something about.

Alfred: For example?

Joey: Can you name an invention that happened during the Civil War?

Alfred: No.

Joey: Neither could I. But then I read that balloons were invented by a self-taught scientist — Thaddeus Lowe — and it was the first example of aerial reconnaissance used in war. Lowe set up a balloon on the White House lawn and then went up in it. President Lincoln was so impressed that he sent him straight to the U.S. Army Balloon Corps.

Alfred: Are you teasing me?

Joey: I’m not. There really was this unit. The people in the balloons relayed information to the officers in the field using the telegraph, which had only been invented around 15 years earlier. A lot was invented back then.

Alfred: Wow. I had no idea. This is what having freedom allows you to find.

I couldn’t have said it better. Being an autodidact, as my parents have explained, allows me the freedom to learn what I want to learn.

And that’s worth a lot in my book, or laptop, or wherever. It’s why I love the freedom of summer.

And the best news of all is that I don’t have to worry about not fitting in. There is a place for me to learn and be curious and still have friends who learn in class — the way I was supposed to.

I told this to my mom, and she said,

“Yes, freedom and acceptance are wonderful.”

Key Message: Feeding your curiosity and learning the way that fits you best should be celebrated. There is no one-size-fits-all, and curiosity serves everyone best when it’s allowed to travel.