pelf-ism is contagious

One of Lorelle’s earlier blogging challenges was for her readers to “blog about what you know” - what you really know.

“Look deep into your heart and soul and think about all the things you know. You know a lot about a lot of things. But what are you really confident that you know the most about?” … “Think about all that you know and choose the one thing you would arrogantly assume you were the master of. Then write about it.”

Fact is, I am really a master of none. Sad, I know, but that’s the truth Or maybe I shall rephrase that and say that I know a lot of things, but most of the things that I know at a particular point of time depends largely on the person I am with. It isn’t very confusing if you were able to digest it part by part, you know.

So for example, when I was with my sister, I used to know a lot of things. But that was because elder sisters were supposed to know everything - from how babies were made to where Donald Duck lived. OK, I may not know where Donald Duck lived, but you get the flow.. Questions that my sister challenged me with were almost always answered, but I guess it wasn’t because I was a very smart sister, but because I was older than her and that “younger sisters always asked st*pid questions.”

But things do change. And roles reversed. Now that we’ve grown up a little, I have turned into the st*pid sister my sister once was. She has grown into a fine lady and she knows how babies are made and that Donald Duck does not exist in real life. As time passes by, I have turned from a know-it-all sister to a know-nothing sister.

Likewise, whenever I am with my friends who all of a sudden seem very concerned about what my research is all about and how it is going, I morph into a “turtle expert” - a “river terrapin expert” in this case as I am still not very comfortable bragging about being the expert *winks* Because surprisingly, little facts like how the river terrapins have four front claws and five hind claws compared to five front and hind claws in most other terrapins amuse my friends. And little explainations on how turtles, terrapins and tortoises are classified somehow rendered me a master in my own field of study.

But whenever I am with my Supervisor or other REAL turtle experts, I am more often than not tongue-tied. Like what happened during the one-week river terrapin workshop that we hosted last year. Scientists, researchers as well as foreign post-graduate students participated in the workshop and for once ever since I started working on the river terrapins, that I felt I was the st*pid one. I felt I was the one who needed a h*ll lot of studying and reading up to do. There were times I felt that I wasn’t fit to be in that group. I felt I knew nothing.

I digress.

Anyway, if I had to “blog about what I know”, it would be about turtles, about conservation, about volunteerism, and about charity. Because these are what I truly care about.