This past January, I took Physics at my University. The University of Delaware has a really long break (too long), and a lot of people tend to take classes during the break. Some people do it at a local community college, others do winter session that's offered on campus.
I took a winter session, and I took Physics during this time. Within the first week of classes, my life quickly became: eat, sleep, physics. I wish I was exaggerating, but I am not.
In high school, I only took biology and chemistry. I never took Physics, and that's because my high school has this thing called the IB Program. IB classes are basically APs, but international so everyone in the world who takes the course takes the same course. That's the best way to explain it.
In these courses, there are 2 levels, SL which is slightly easier than the average AP course, and HL which tend to be harder than the average AP course. SL is standard level and most of them are one-year courses. HLs stand for higher level and are always 2 years.
My sophomore year, I decided to take IB Biology HL my junior and senior year. My biology teacher from freshman year taught the first year of the course, and she was my favorite teacher in freshman year, so I wanted to have her again. Also, I was interested in biology and I thought it would be a fun course for me to take.
I ended having the same biology teacher for 3 years because she taught both years of HL biology when I was a student. The year that I took the second year of HL biology was her first year teaching that part of the course. It was really cool to have her for 3 years for a lot of reasons, but that's for another time.
Because of this, I never took Physics in high school. Going into the course, I knew nothing about physics. All I knew is that it was hard and contained a lot of math.
Thank goodness for my professor being a gem of a human being. On the second day of classes, he was my second favorite professor that I have ever had at UD. That's because he cares so much about his students and he makes his course doable for someone who's never taken Physics before.
I knew that I couldn't rely on his lectures to get me through the material alone. Before lectures, I would have read the chapter prior, so I have some background. It wasn't much of an understanding because a lot of the time, I never got it right away, but this professor made me understand it. I understood Physics.
He broke everything down, and when I wasn't in class, I was either watching videos on Physics, doing the HW/labs, or doing practice problems. I didn't want my lack of experience in the class to hold me back from doing well. On my first quiz, I got an 80 and I was proud of that grade.
First, it was an 8/10, so I only lost 2 points. Second, I only lost 2 points so far in a class that I have never taken before. That's amazing if you think about it.
What I've learned from taking this class is that anything is possible, if you put your mind to it. During this time, I got sick, and a lot of my friendships suffered because I was so focused on Physics. I made the joke that I was dating Physics because I spent all of my time doing it. However, it was worth it because I took a class that I never thought I could take.
If I can take college-level physics, then you can do anything. You can go up to your crush and ask them out. You can go and ask for that promotion, you can do a cartwheel, you can ace that really hard class. You can do it if you put your mind to it.
It will be hard and it will be scary, but the feeling of accomplishment after doing something that you never thought you could do is the greatest feeling in the world. It's a feeling that's rare, so if you have the ability to shoot for it, do it. There's nothing holding you back, so go and as Shia LaBeouf once shouted "just do it!"
