Finals week is passing by in a blur. We spent our Wednesday morning in research final oral assessment. In the beginning of the semester my research advisors Aaron and Alicia would play the daunting question game. I would often get frustrated when it seemed that just about every question I asked them was turned right around and it was required that I work through it in pieces. Although this tactic left me often impatient and boiling over time I could see a new development in my way of thinking. I had no Google, no effortless way out. Now it seems that nothing is more rewarding than answering my own puzzling questions, to know that I withhold the knowledge I never knew was present. When our final oral assessment rolled around I knew that the hard work that I have put into molding my intellectual approach to think critically had prepared me for this day. We were given 5 minutes to prepare from a given prompt, a prompt describing a complex potential environmental issue in the media. Then we had 15 minutes to describe the scientific methodology and our plans to approach such issue with the knowledge we have feverishly accumulated all spring. Those 15 minutes soon turned into 25 I felt like I was on the solving path, thinking critically, potentially, like well a scientist. Me, a scientist? No, I am just knowledge consumer I told myself. Never have I had such confidence in my words, I felt like my words had the potential to make a difference, make a change. I have begun to crave knowledge consume less and produce more. Ignorance does not have to impair you leaving you blind, in fact it should feed knowledge seekers.