To be honest, openness can be a catch-22. It is often a dilemma where there is no escape because it is openly and mutually conflicting to either yourself or others if you’re too open or not open enough. Openness can escalade into a self-defeating course of action, otherwise thought of as being damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

How I know this? I live it every day. I wonder if I’m being too secluded, or the constant assessment of if I’m hearing myself talk too much. Or maybe I am sharing more than the nearby strangers needs to hear.

In reality, it’s your choice what you want to open yourself up to. You are the decider of the moments you create whether you hold back and observe, which is beneficial at times, or opening yourself up to breaking the walls of uncertainty.

Who decided we can’t ask questions or want to know more? We do not think differently of children who ask us multiple questions. Instead, we understand they do not have an understanding of the entire world and we answer back helpfully and calmly. Young and old should want openness so they can fully experience life. Get up, get out and be curious. Ask questions and be a lifelong learner. Don’t be afraid of being annoying. One’s greatest asset is to have knowledge no one can steal from you. You own something bigger than someone’s irritability of you.

It isn’t anyone’s business to know what others think of each other. You and I will still be the same person today as we were yesterday or the week before that or 5 years from now. Opening our senses to the world can be riveting and freeing which is why I ask you to do so.

Be curious. Be open. Be you. You will never know how openness will affect you unless you try.

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Anna Schott is a senior public relations student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Continuously trying to find a balance and capturing the small joys of life, Anna is in the process of following her passions and working to check off that bucket list box “Be super successful.” As a go-getter, enthusiastic millennial, she plans on broadening her horizons and looking for opportunities outside of Nebraska after graduating. Currently serving as the Director of Marketing for a start-up company, Anna continues to find time to write and enjoy her love of the outdoors.