i love physics!!!

okay i'm going to sound like a gigantic nerd right now but i've wanted to talk about this for so long

i've mentioned this in a previous blog entry of mine but i'd like to be an engineer some day, specifically an electrical engineer. and with engineering comes a crap ton of physics and math. 

growing up, like most children, i despised math. i was still pretty good at it though, thanks to my mom making me fill out workbook after workbook (often meant for the grade above mine) during the summers. okay on further reflection, maybe that's why i hated it lol.

middle school math was slightly better. i'd imagine basic algebraic equations as boss fights in a video game, which made it a lot more fun. however i was still stuck in my "ew math" phase, which, when i was startng to think about my future, lead to me leaning towards subjects like biology and chemistry. 

during the first half of my high school years, i'd decided i wanted to go into biology, maybe even biomedical research. my reasoning at the time was that i enjoyed the labs i did in honors bio, and that it didn't have much math. it was also a compromise since my mom wanted me to become a doctor, and i absolutely did NOT want to become a doctor. 

it's funny now that i look back on it that i let my dislike of math define me so much i centered my career goals around it. but it didn't last anyway because i'd then find out that i absolutely hated chemistry and couldn't stand the thought of having to take another chem class. 

taking calculus my junior year was a huge turning point for me. it was the class that made me fall in love with math. algebra and geometry was a snooze for me because it involved so much of just learning equations without really knowing how or why they existed. but in calculus, all those things i learned years ago began to click, and that made me excited. 

i still think math is one of the closest things that we as humans could get to pure magic. and yes you may fight me on this if you'd like. when i watched my calculus teacher or math tutor solve for problems, seemingly transforming equations into answers using numbers and values they pulled out of thin air, it felt like watching a magician perform their tricks. and i wanted to be that kind of magician myself so badly. 

during my junior year, i also took ap physics, and i think my love of math really lead me to liking physics. i was absolutely horrible in physics, i got some of the lowest test grades i've ever earned in my LIFE in this class and i barely made it out with a b- after doing what i believe was at least a 100 points worth of extra credit. my teacher sucked ass and i'm fairly sure after hearing what my ap physics c teacher has to say about him, is probably not even qualified to teach that class. but despite everything, i somehow still looked forward to that class every day. 

what i really loved about physics was that in a way, it was much more forgiving than the other sciences i took. what i found with bio and chem was that your success in the class was heavily reliant on the fact that you know the material, and if you happen to forget any of it, you're kinda cooked and/or forced to make a guess and hope for the best. but with physics, if i didn't know an answer, i could use math and logic i knew, or my surroundings to help me find the answer. i found this to be true for math i didn't know. i mean, i once used my pair of earring to help me solve for a pendulum question, it was awesome. and i find that kind of problem solving really fun. 

i always feel like a huge fraud when i talk about loving physics or math, because subjects like those feel reserved for the geniuses that are naturally talented at them, and i'm... very much not a genius. but i guess it goes to show you don't really have to be super good at something to really like it, and hopefully the fact i like it makes me better at it!

- sm