Becca Arkwright | Wonder

Who are you; what do you do in Oxford?

I’m Becca, a 2nd year at Hertford occasionally doing a bit of French and Spanish but mainly managing to spend most of my time in Oxford doing things that have absolutely no relation either to my degree or to each other.

What is the most wonderful thing about life?

I’d say most things in life are pretty wonderful if you think about it – basically just the whole world and the way it works is a good start, the way organisms are formed and life develops, the way humans have the physical ability to interact and beyond that to form varied and complex relationships, things which are so normalised that we forget how completely insane they are. It’s so easy to let the narrative of the world distort the way we see our surroundings but if you think about the beauty and intricacy of even the tiniest aspects of creation, most things it turns out are kind of immense. I believe that the world was made by perfect design and in perfect love, by a completely powerful God. And while we can feel hopeless about the seemingly endless pain and suffering in the world, I find there is so much hope and wonder in the complexity of creation and the amazing way in which it all works together, pointing to a glorious creator. And beyond that, in the fact that a guy who can make basically all the fundamental ingredients for a. marmite and b. the universe (!) also wants to have a relationship with us.

Is there something more?

How could there not be? So that is probably a vastly inadequate response to a massive question, but I am constantly struck with complete conviction that yes, there is so much more. Even the fact that we’re asking these questions suggests that we innately know this isn’t everything, that there’s something infinitely bigger at play. I guess that’s what makes the wonderful things in life so wonderful – like the human ability to breathe isn’t amazing by our cultural standards (because most people have pretty much nailed that one) but the fact that that is just such a small but necessary process in giving us life, and the ability to think and reflect, and see the wonder in the world, shows me that there must be something more.