

Knowing that there’s something I haven’t learned, a skill I haven’t mastered, or an equation I haven’t solved creates a warp in time that transports me to a region where seconds and minutes don’t restrain my knowledge. The never-ending knowledge found within the internet never fails to hold my attention, as my inquiries are like an emperor penguin plunging into the cold Antarctic waters for a swim. I call moments like these an “internet search spiral.” Part of the reason why these spirals are so captivating is because they can never be boring it would take me 23.8 million years to go through the 295 exabytes of information on the web. Soon, this habit became deeply ingrained in my character. From conducting at-home plant dissections to confirm what was taught in class, or reading an actual newspaper for the latest reports, nothing was true unless I had found evidence. This love of research stems from my childhood, as I was determined to find my own answers. Whether it’s a quick Google search or an all nighter, I find myself lost in time as the world around me blurs while I unearth its secrets. I encounter a similar situation on any given day. This example of the emperor penguin is one of the many instances where I am motivated by the need to question what I hear. How big are emperor penguins? How cold is the ocean in Antarctica? And what even is anaerobic metabolization? Ahhhhh! I feel like I am going to explode! I have to know more. I continue to scroll as my mind hunts for answers. I click on the first site I see: “Emperor penguins dive to catch fish in the ocean, and their bodies begin to metabolize anaerobically after a certain point of being submerged.” But that wasn’t enough. I rush to my room and open my laptop, while my fingers type furiously as videos, images, and articles flood the screen.
#Statbook app rice university movie
My mom groans as I pause the movie to spend the rest of my night understanding that one statement.

I’m starting to lose interest, but the narrator says something wild that perplexes me: “Some birds have the ability to hold their breath for over 15 minutes underwater.” Well, now I have to know more. It’s family movie night, and we’ve chosen to watch Bird Brain, a nature documentary about birds and their unique abilities. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? Prompt: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time.
