Dear High School Physics Students...

Hello everyone, I have not written a post in a really wrong time. In all honesty, I do not really have an excuse except for I have been studying for my physics final.

I have been taking physics for two trimesters, and I have incredibly mixed feelings. I love physics, don't get me wrong, but physics is the hardest course that I have taken in my entire life. The reason for this is not the workload, my teacher, or any of that nonsense that I used to say to my parents when they would ask me "Why are you struggling so hard?" The sad truth is that I can not seem to understand the concept of physics at all!

My teacher consistently tells me "Think of it in a physics way, you are thinking of it in a math way" and I understand where he is coming from, but at the same time, physics includes numbers so why not think of it like math? Well, physics includes direction and you have to account for negative and positive signs, which ultimately gets super confusing. Also, if you do not understand one concept and you move past it hoping that you will eventually understand, you will fall INCREDIBLY behind. Trust me, I know.

I am grateful for physics however because it has taught me that sometimes you really need to struggle. Every course I have taken up until this point has been relatively easy for me, but junior physics hit me like a speeding bus. Now, this might seem like a tangent, but it is important to understand what you are getting yourself into when you are considering taking physics in your growing years in high school. Adults who are reading this, hello! If you have taken physics while growing up, I know you understand the difficulty of finally understanding what physics is truly all about.

I want to be involved in aeronautical engineering and astrophysics, and an important course to take is physics, and honestly, physics has become my life. When taking physics, I have found that all of my free time is spent thinking "What is Tarzan's final velocity when he collides with Jane in an elastic collision? Is energy conserved after this collision? Well of course it is!" It is a constant push and pull with me to think about the concepts of physics that I have missed in the past.

So dear high school physics students, I am struggling right there with you, but physics is beautiful, so stick it out! You will not regret it, I surely do not. Even though physics has brought me through hell at this point, I have learned to love the process and trust my judgment and math which has heightened my interest in space and engineering.

Take physics in high school and college!

See you next time!

-Bailley G