Ideas on academics

 The academic world and your place in it

    We all have to go to school, it's an unfortunate fact of life because while we may spend 10 years in mandatory school alone, we often leave with more questions than we began with, or so I believe. Now, certainly, the beginning years of school are important, teaching us the basics of life, but we enter middle school and get our first taste of freedom with choosing what electives we want to do. By no means is this wrong; however, I believe that we can do better in preparing our students for the future that lies ahead of them. 

    See, we may believe that we were set up for success by the school system; however, think about all the unknowns we have to face in life. Do you know how to do taxes from school? Do you know how to invest in companies that will provide you with a stable income and base? Do you know how to have an emergency fund for when life is well, life? Do you know what loans are and how to find ones that will help you if you continue your education? The answer to all of these is NO, school doesn't teach you any of this. What is the point of school if half of the things that provide us with a fruitful life are denied? 

    I believe seeing that there are all these unknowns that we need to be better, we need to improve our schooling system to teach us something that actually matters, as boring as it may be, at least there is a point. In my education journey, I have yet to learn to invest, save, budget, etc, etc. What is the point of a school that teaches you nothing of what society expects after graduation? If we just go to school for ten years, then proceed to go on to another school, that may provide some value, but cost your life savings to the point of using loans that only will hurt you more in the end. I don't foresee a change in this system any time soon, however, I am hopeful that we, the students, collectively can learn this kind of information to pass on to our next generation. 

    While there is a lot of gloom that I wrote of before, there is hope in a sense. While we don't become fully prepared from our 10+ years of education, we do come away knowing some of the very basic layer of information. That being algebra, which helps you calculate your interest rates.. If you get really crazy, you get to calculus and you'll learn about optimization problems, which all in all just tell you how to maximize your space with as little material as possible, think soda cans, bottles, circular pens, etc. Now, while this might not be of interest on face value, it will at least teach you stuff important to say when starting a trash can business with said amount of material, you can optimize to hold the most possible area. 

    All in all, school can be dumb at times and peer pointless at others, for example, trying to learn everything about a dude who lived 300 years ago. Your probably going to wish you learned something that would actually help you, however since most of this information school teaches you (or at least what it did for me) allows you to have time to be a kid, enjoy it; I know it sounds cheesy but soon if you go to college especially if your a stem major you will have not nearly as much time. I also highly encourage, if you're fascinated, to start learning more about the stock market and the stuff mentioned earlier that is highly important to real life, rather than just exams. 

My academics

My Academics 

Throughout this "article" or what have you I will talk about my experiences through my wack academic background. That being

• Middle School
• High School
• Running Start (Community College)

                                        Middle School

    It was not very eventful seeing as I was in middle school 90% of the time that COVID was taking place, thus most of my experience was spent sitting in a room staring at a screen till the class was over; that being said 8th-grade year was when I first learned that I had some potential to go places in my academic career however at the time I was still a die-hard wanna be marine. Believe it or not, I was so die-hard on this that I was about to transfer school districts to go do the Marine Corps JROTC program (in high school). But this year I started two high school classes, which for a lot isn't a big deal seeing as most kids had been doing classes a grade ahead the entire time they were in middle school. But for me, this was a big freaking deal, I was going to actually get to a: choose my classes for once rather than be told what classes I'm taking whether it is relevant or not, and b: actually learn some life skill that could maybe get me somewhere in the real world. But the one challenge with online school is when you fall off a treadmill and hit your head so hard you get a concussion, then proceed to ignore that and run three miles. Woke up the next morning ate breakfast and couldn't even remember what I had just eaten, my teacher told me it might be wise to go see a doctor. I did, and sure enough, I now was stuck getting behind in school, and only listening to books for a week straight, oh and playing chess.

High School

    Everyone's favorite time of school, where everyone's voice cracks so much the squeaks could break a mirror or glass. My high school experience was more confusing than trying to read everything I wrote backward, in all honesty, it's not my cup of tea. The first year there when I was in NJROTC it wasn't too crappy, other than the competitions being so early you really question the point of the program, and doing events so late that you forget the concept of dinner or a social life. That being said the community within JROTC was strong in a way, as at that point most of the people in the community were kind to one another and would all love the drill practices, academics, etc. So there was a strong bond in that way that we were together constantly without fail. However, my actual academic experience there was rather uneventful, the best that happened was that I learned I was rather good at geometry and math, as well as most other subjects getting straight A's every year without fail. This taught me my passion for academics and learning, wanting to understand the ins and outs of the world and how it functioned from physics, and biology, to math I loved it all. 

Running Start

    The true test of one's knowledge, really "running" is the understatement of the century, it is more like sprinting start. Because your time here while worth it, is tough, you might not expect just how difficult it is (mainly for stem classes/majors). Cause I can tell you it was rather rough if you're doing chemistry (really just the first class cause of the professor). The rest is rather simple if you are in English, not that hard just use the resources provided by the library, history (the textbook is certainly required on this), and psych apparently you can get by without the textbook, Philosophy Mystery Girl did it with no textbook (not sure how she did that but she just special like that), calculus expect to be so brain dead by the end that if you see a number anywhere you will cry. Now I did highly exarate on that and most aren't to horrible, the only ones I have seen lost struggle in are chem one (the like introduction class), and calculus two which I mean its calculus two that's to be expected. But you'll be mostly safe if you have like any other major that isn't in a stem field; all are also really fascinating and so sometimes you can find yourself actually enjoying the work somehow. That or after enough work you become so delusional that you think that everything is fun/funny. 

Becoming a Questioner

 The art of question 

Why do we question?

    So many people may have random curiosities much like a child wondering why the world works the way it does, and it drives many like myself to look for answers. That being said the questioning in question comes from a place of uncertainty in my opinion some may even be afraid of said uncertainty, leading to us searching for answers in sciences, math, etc. However, I am very curious to see what you all have questions on. That being said if you want to be led down a fun little rabbit hole I recommend questioning even your questions such as why in my opinion kids have the most neuroplasticity (fancy word for they say why an annoying amount of times) because I believe their questioning is what drives their brain to form new thoughts, questions, aspirations, and more. 

    Often the answers to life's biggest questions are answered by sciences however if you're also religious like I am then it may end at a point of unsureness that can only be explained by god. Now I personally still wonder when we will reach that point cause much like there will never be a full end to our knowledge. That's why research is such a fascinating thing just when we think we effectively create something from just mere thought. 

The beginning

 The beginning of this journey

The start 💀: 

    I am currently a running start student at a community college however, I will be transferring to a four-year university to study neuroscience. For clarification a running start student at least where I am from is a student who progresses from just the standard high school education to community college full-time or part-time; in my case, I am a full-time student. But I digress, what got me here was a rough experience in a NJROTC at my high school, making me no longer feel safe at the high school and pushing me towards this amazing program. Additionally, I was pushed over that line when they told me not to do the internship I had signed up for at my local hospital. 

      This of course wasn't gonna fly with me and I knew that I needed to leave; while I hoped for just a peaceful transition away from the nightmare that was high school for me I ended up getting harassed in the NJROTC program. Causing this process to be set at full speed, and I would be leaving that program immediately and set as the counselor's TA. This event which was at the time feeling like the end of the world as I knew it, was truly the best thing that ever happened to me.