interesting questions

my freshman year at university was hectic. the amount of projeccts i took on and the organizations i was a part of often outweighed the amount of studying and homework i had to do. that made my uni life scattered to say the least.

often people have a safe place. a spot they go to get away from the world. for some people that is art, be it art, music, dance or some other artform. for some people that is to consume some sort of media. for me it was nowhere other than my second beginner english class at university. it was a mandatory class that i had to take, and if you thought it would be the most mundane thing i had to do out of my schedule you would be wrong.

professor ayla elam. one of the best professors i have had my entire time at virginia tech (granted i have only been there for two semesters). she did not just teach us english, but challenged us to write better. atleast that was my understanding. a while back i also posted a mini essay i wrote within her class that i was proud of. she was a part of the reason i generated quality content. the gears in my head started moving in that class.

it was just a regular wednesday and i went to burruss hall to attend my delightful english class, when professor elam threw us a curveball. she said, "write down any sort of interrogative that would be interesting for you to write a research paper on. it could be a list of questions on literally anything."

anything? but where was the 'there is only one right theme to this poem' professor? the 'you are so close to the right theme' professor? the 'write a thousand word essay on a boring topic' professor? i was confused initially on what to write. what did she want me to do? what did she expect from my list of questions? is this a test? am i completely stupid?

well i always had a bank of questions somewhere in my sub-brain stored, so that i could never be bored and always have something to read on wikipedia about. so, i just started writing. just blinding started typing frantically on my keyboard while professor elam slightly raised her eyebrow at me.

later that evening, i got my grade in for that assignment. a perfect score, with the following feedback. "very intriguing collection of thoughts with some definite potential for research questions sprinkled throughout... nice work!" didn't expect that honestly. but here is the list that i wrote. i think i am pretty proud of myself for thinking in so many various angles, rather than just my field of computer science.

after so much turmoil on the global field, does the united states still remain the as the leading nation of the free world, or has the world order changed? why do public and private academic institutions stop students from exploring from outside their field? are the criminally insane really bad people, or just misunderstood humans who have been under emotional or physical stress through a certain point in life? should ted kaczynski really be blamed for unabom or should the cia and harvard university be blamed for their experiments on him from when he attended harvard? does money turn a saint into a sinner, or a griever into a blithe spirit? does music have an effect on the psychological state of humans, animals and plants, and if yes, how exactly? if a child is born in international waters by parents who are stateless, then what country is the child a citizen of, or what is the child's nationality? what are the repercussions of the holocaust in today's world and has it changed the world's cultural topology?

hope you enjoyed reading.

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