Reflection #8

Turned 24 today. Happy birthday to me!

This is my first week interning at Microsoft, and it’s been fantastic so far. I’ve attended so many events, met so many people, almost overwhelmed by social events and really had to fight for some “me” time, but everyone here has been so kind and welcoming, I truly appreciate it!

By reflecting on what I’ve done this week, I realized there’s been a dramatic change – I’ve become more willing to ask questions.

In a course I took last semester, there’s someone who asked questions on almost every slide, and most of them were really basic. I remember the professor said a few times, “The answer is on the next page, please don’t rush”.

Honestly, I was annoyed during the class. I felt like he’s just wasting our time by asking questions could have been easily answered by searching the internet or asking ChatGPT.

However, I’ve changed my mind this week.

I entered a new environment, met new people, and realized there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know. I talked with a lot of people, and sometimes I just couldn’t understand what they were saying.

If it had been the old me, I would have just pretended that I understood and let the conversation move on. But this time I thought of the “always-asking-questions” guy.

“Things I took for granted might not be the same for others, and vice versa. If he had the courage to ask questions, why didn’t I?”

So I asked about almost everything I didn’t understand during conversations. I think I’ve asked “What do you mean by XYZ?” more than 30 times this week. I mean, I wasn’t trying to annoy anyone. I just wanted to understand.

And by doing so, I understood what people were trying to say much better, and I grew more confident in admitting when I don’t know something.

The art of asking questions is simply to ask.