become a physicist

I started college in 2007 as a non-traditional student. I originally started as a mechanical engineering major, but soon I realized that I really like physics and all of the things that it encompasses. I have not taken any really hard physics classes yet, but I am looking forward to taking them. I am still working on my bachelors of science in physics, but after that I am looking to go to graduate school.

After so many years studying, I passed my exam and I got my degree in Physics! I couldn’t believe it last week when I checked the results, and I think I will take still some time to fully realise that I am not a student any more.

This was really one of the worthiest things I have ever done, and I just hope to be a more useful person now for the rest of the world.

For this entry I choose this sunrise I took from the plane when I was flying between Dublin and Madrid last week. It represents the beginning of a new era for myself.

I have passed my exam on superconductors!! Now I just have to pass my exam on quantum field theory next September and I will get my degree!

This long-term “thing” is related to two more short-term “things”: one about learning superconductivity, and the other about understanding quantum field theory.

Studying physics is like running a marathon, especially if, like me, you have to work full-time while you prepare in your spare time your exams about thermodynamics, your talk about brown dwarves and your reseaches about nuclear physics (and the Nilsson diagrams). I have been doing this while I was eight hours a day at a busy reception of a hotel, or receiving calls from customers of a parfum company, or dealing with the software/hardware problems of students at my university.

I am now at the very last months of this real adventure: I just have to pass two exams to finish, one in June and the other one in September. I am quite a different, stronger, better person now. I learnt how to run marathons (half metaphorically and half literally), how not to be afraid of starting something that might take years to complete, how to motivate myself every single day to go a bit further, and how not to give up when things go wrong.

Not doing so well on this goal. I pretty much failed/bombed my second year and don’t know if the university would even let me take any more courses :S. For now I want to relax anyway. I love to study physics, but I’m gonna keep it at home and such for now. Maybe in a couple years or so I’ll start up again after I’ve greatly expanded my knowledge from reading textbooks at home.

So that’s when I can register for my courses at University. I’m not sure yet if I want to redo the courses that I barely passed or if I just wanna study harder and take the next ones….

When I think about this goal, I ask myself what is it I want to do with physics? Basically I want to get paid to study and think about physics. Maybe teach it on the high school or college level. My great love in physics is quantum theory, I could sit around and ponder that stuff all day, I’m so serious. Finding the time to go to school for this will be challenging though, with everything else I have going on.

There is a woman I know who is currently in school to get a degree in physics. She has a little baby, a boy, and reminds me of myself when I was a younger mama trying to get a degree while having small kids. I am going to ask her some questions and seek her encouragement. I also recently emailed one of my old professors I had years ago when I was first pursuing a physics degree. I had her for my 3rd physics class. She responded very positively and encouraged me to find some way to merge my business degree with physics. She pointed me toward a program Case Western has about entrepreneurship and physics. I have heard of this before but never really looked into it. We’ll see.