“Every 8 year old can tell you that space is cool.
I’m 18, and space is still cool, so I’ve always just had a little bit of that childhood joy. I love space. It’s got everything in the world in it, and it’s very grand. Astrophysics is kind of a starting ground to understand how everything else works.
When I took IB Astronomy, I thought that it was quite fun. That led me to the planetary science research internship at Rice University over the summer, which demonstrated I wasn’t as bad at physics as I thought. Similarly for calculus, I thought it would be hard, but it wasn’t, so I realized, ‘Hey, I’m actually kind of good at this.’
Math is one of my strengths. I think it’s fun. Well, maybe it’s a little bit of Stockholm syndrome, but the reasoning sort of soothes me. You can prove things are right or wrong, and there’s a sense of order that I like.
If I see a hard problem and can come up with a great solution, that’s always a very joyous moment. Even better is when I find a solution that’s easier than the one that is provided at the back of the book. It makes me think I’m smarter than the problem writers, and that feeling just makes my whole week.
I’m going to Rice University, and out of astrophysics, computer science and math, I’m going to pick two of the three. Astrophysics and math are the fundamentals of how everything is expressed. Everything branches off of those.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is if there’s something that you might find challenging, you can overcome it. I’ve come across challenges, which at the time, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s nearly impossible for me to get through.’ Still, every time I’ve managed to pull through to some extent, maybe not the greatest extent, but enough to get past. It should all somewhat work out.
Towards the end of the school year, I’m feeling a similar emotion to how people might feel when they’re starting school. There’s gonna be at least a dozen Bellaire kids of my age going to Rice, but it’s still going to be a tough transition nonetheless. I’m sad that I’m leaving all these great people behind, but I’m just as excited to once again meet great, friendly people.”
