Life’s Big Questions
February 24, 2025
Writer: Daisy Stuart
Editor: Zoe Gellert
For as long as I can remember, I have wrestled with my curiosities. Even at the young age of nine, I was desperate to know why we were here. I struggled with questions of all kinds, big and small. When I was seven years old, in the back of my mother’s SUV, I asked my mom, “ How do our eyes work?” She couldn’t answer me, and I had a freakout. I simply had to know how our eyes worked at that very moment. My brother Ethan replied, “Quantum physics, Daisy, it’s quantum physics.”
Quantum physics is defined as the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. It aims to uncover the properties and behaviors of the very building blocks of nature. I’m still unsure why, but this became Ethan’s answer to every question I would ask. I would ask him suspiciously why an entire deck of cards was scattered across my bedroom floor, knowing it was his doing. He would reply that it was simply quantum physics.
My brother and I were drastically different people. We went to the same school for twelve years, and as we grew, the more opposite we became. When I entered my freshman year of high school, and he was a senior, we were practically day and night. Ethan knew exactly who he was. He loved Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, video games, and heavy metal music. He was confident in who he was and what he liked, even if it cost him his social life at our small school. I was your typical high school freshman girl, desperate to attend her first parties.
Freshman year, all I wanted was to be liked and fit in. I tried so hard to achieve this, ignoring everything that made me happy; everything I feared judgment for. I wasn’t motivated to find something I was passionate about. I realized this emptiness in my life as I watched my brother graduate. He was happy to be out of high schoolbut was also fulfilled with who he was there, social life or not. He was proud of how he stayed true to himself and had no regrets.
I felt inspired to make high school as authentic to myself as I could. I learned from his love of heavy metal and found my love of music. Following his graduation, sophomore year, I joined the choir. Joining choir was something I was so scared to publicize, but it was the best decision I made. I absolutely love to sing, and choir became my favorite part of my day in high school. It served as a safe haven to express myself, the same way Ethan can express himself while listening to Metallica.
He taught me that your niche interests can truly help you. He loves video games , and now he is majoring in college in the business of ESports. I found my love for writing during my sophomore year of high school, and now English is one of my majors at Tulane University. Writing provides me with an outlet to express my understanding of the world around me and give meaning to the most mundane things. Something I once found embarrassing is now one of my favorite things about myself. I’ve been able to find my passions by watching my brother pursue his own. Thanks to Ethan, I know how to play Super Smash Bros, Fortnite, Minecraft, and Dungeons & Dragons (kind of).
He taught me to fill your life with things that bring you joy. He did this by just being himself. These lasting impacts and purposes that I feel desperate to find in my own life reside in the authenticity of one’s character and how simply being genuine to yourself can inspire others and give you meaning. There is no definite answer to the question of our existence. Sometimes you just have to be like Ethan and say that the answer is “quantum physics,” even if it makes no sense in that situation. Maybe it’s about not finding a definite answer, it’s making one of your own. Ethan has shown me that your experience and purpose are established in how you implement passion into your existence. That passion is contagious and inspiring to those around you.