Every week on “Make Me Smart,” we ask an expert, celebrity, author or other prominent figure: “What’s something you thought you knew but later found out you were wrong about?” It’s called the Make Me Smart question.

This week, we’re hearing from actress Tami Stronach, a star of one of Kimberly’s favorite films, “The NeverEnding Story.”

“Something that I thought I knew and later found out I was wrong about is related to being optimistic. I think as a young person, I thought that if you were overly optimistic that you must be just incredibly naive, you must not be interested in what’s really happening in the world. And that if anyone was going to seriously engage with the events of the day, and all the complications that exist, you would have to be a little depressed. And it turned out that I was wrong. And I learned that through watching my father. My father was an incredibly optimistic man. He died last year. He had Parkinson’s. He had heart disease, and about a year ago, he fell and broke his hip. And I watched him struggle with all of these things. And I realized that he wasn’t in any way avoiding reality or unable to see the events that were happening around him. He just had this ability to, despite the difficulties, still find a lot to celebrate.”

You can share your answer to the Make Me Smart question by leaving us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email a voice memo to makemesmart@marketplace.org.