Twenty Questions with Kirby Part 2

1. Are certain words considered beautiful because of the ideas and images they signify or because of an aesthetic quality that they inherently possess?
2. Is it more meaningful to “be a voice for the voiceless” or to listen and allow the “voiceless” to speak for themselves?
3. The media is largely responsible for perpetuating many problematic images and stereotypes. To what extent can a change to this norm be consumer driven, and how much of it must come from within the media itself?
4. How can I prevent one element of my identity from becoming my identity without minimizing its importance?
5. I’ve always been a fan of the idea of compassion. Recently, I learned that compassion literally means “to suffer with.” When is it appropriate to attempt to heal someone’s pain, and when is it more appropriate to enter that pain with them?
6. How can we best go about critiquing ideologies without becoming critical of the individuals who hold them?
7. Is it possible to be authentic with the masses and be vulnerable with only a few?
8. Does preoccupation with certainty lead to loss of faith?
9. Many emotional words prevalent in other languages have no English equivalent, and perhaps vice versa. Does this negate the universality of the emotions themselves?
10. What does it really mean to “keep in touch?”
11. In what ways is beauty a multisensory experience?
12. Is it possible to return to a place or a person you love without being physically present?
13. We tend to feel our most powerful emotions in the heart- or in the core of who we are. Why then, do we often suppress these emotions as trivial?
14. How can I bridge the gap between my youthful uncertainty and developing wisdom in order to cultivate a unique and powerful voice for myself?
15. Unrequited love???  
16. How do we maintain the subjectivity of art while fully embracing and appreciating the artist’s original intent?
17. Why are we so quick to judge the value of our actions and efforts on their tangible results, especially when they are out of our control?
18. How did destructive things like discrimination, prejudice, and intolerance become so embedded in the faith I practice- one that is supposed to be based on ideals of love, grace, and justice for all people?
19. As I move on to the next chapter of my life, how do I hold things from home close to my heart while also making room for new people and experiences?
20. Is it okay to ask a question without any real intention of finding an answer?

20 Questions with Kirby

A few short days ago, I returned from a wonderful place called North Carolina Governor’s School West. The experiences I had there taught me so much about my academic area of interest (English), being independent, building relationships, and making lifelong memories. The mantra at Governor’s School is “question everything.” As someone who likes certainty, this idea has made me pretty uncomfortable for most of my life. Some questions lead us to answers that we do not want to find. Some don’t have answers. Nonetheless, the past five and one-half weeks have taught me that I’m not here to have all the answers. I’m here to ask questions and follow them wherever they may lead. So I’ve compiled a list of 20 questions that tend to occupy my thoughts and that I’d like to explore in the upcoming year. 20 questions is a pretty fun game, so feel free to play along!




1. Having withstood the test of time, the golden rule states that we should treat others the way we would like to be treated. If we do not believe that we personally deserve to be treated with empathy and respect, what implications does this have on the way we treat others?
2. Is it possible to truly know a person, or are we merely creating fictional characters in a narrative we write based on the traits we perceive?
3. The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. Who's to say that a word can't be worth a thousand pictures?
4. Can we truly experience happiness in its greatest magnitude without the existence of pain and suffering?
5. In a society that places such great value on individualism, why do so many individuals feel as if they are of little to no value?
6. In the grand scheme of the infinite universe, our planet is merely a speck. Why then, do we use physical distance as a justification for crumbling relationships?
7. Most people agree that lying is morally wrong, and many assert that anything that is not entirely true is a lie. Is it morally wrong to say "I'm fine" when in reality you're the complete opposite?
8. I'm a Christian. Many people in my faith tend to condemn nonbelievers for "rejecting God's love." How can someone be expected to accept a love that is not evident in the lives of those who profess it?
9. By one definition, language is described as "an finite number of symbols arranged into an infinite number of possible combinations." Does this qualify things such as music and mathematics as languages?
10. Would we have more boldness in saying "hello" to strangers if we didn't live with the constant threat of "goodbye?"
11. 75% of American girls believe that their personal worth depends on how they look. For a long time, I was one of them. What are we doing (or not doing) as a society to stop the perpetuation of this destructive idea?
12. How am I supposed to respond when I feel inextricably connected to someone who doesn't even know my name?
13. Is "loving from a distance" an example of bravery or cowardice?
14. Why am I really good at some of the things I'm indifferent towards, but really mediocre at some of the things I'm most passionate about?
15. What are the consequences of labeling romantic love as the most consummate form of human attachment?
16. When is silence louder than noise?
17. When will I stop making the same wish at 11:11 every night: when it finally comes true, or when I accept the fact that it probably never will?
18. Which of these is the most defining component of my identity: the physical, the mental, or the spiritual?
19. Why does it often seem that fiction contains more truth than fact alone?
20. What happens when I run out of questions?