The Truth is... I don't Know Everything by Adriana

The Truth is... I don't Know Everything by Adriana - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

Over the course of our undergraduate education, we all have particular area of study that we wish to avoid all together, just leave it to the very end, and avoid the pain and agony it will cause for as long as we can; for me this course was physics. After several failed attempts to finish this class, I just could not get pass the laws of kinematics (moving objects), it was like stepping into a foreign language class that was more about Calculus than physics.

In my last attempt to pass physics, I did something that I have never done before, and that was to use every resource at my disposal to understand the material. In the past, I relied heavily on textbooks; I trusted the authors of these physics books blindly to teach me the basic concepts and I relied on my class notes, a mixture between the topics I had a good understanding of, and the rest question marks next to topics I could not wrap my head around. Every question mark was a lie, a false promise to me that I would go to office hours and ask my professor or a teacher’s aide for help long before the exam. I never went to get help because I thought my question was not important enough to bother my professor. Instead, I remained stubborn and ignorant at the fact that there is a possibility that I could understand the material if and only if I followed through with seeking the help I desperately needed. I was afraid and mostly uncomfortable asking for help, I was too concern with what they would think of me when they saw I could not understand something so basic and easy to everyone else. I imagined them saying, “Wow, you cannot understand something this simple? What is wrong with you? How did you get here?” Before I allowed myself the opportunity to learn, I would begin by putting myself down. Seeking for help and admitting to not understanding something is hard for pre-med students to accept. Pre-med students are supposed to be la crème-de-la-crème, the smart over-achievers; they do not look for help, they help others overcome their problems because as successful students they have all the answers.

My pre-med advisor once told me that a pre-med’s biggest obstacle was stubbornness and lack of acceptance of the fact that they do not know everything, and that sometimes they will fail, as I did. I took this advice very seriously and applied it in all aspects of my life. I stopped putting question marks at the end of every topic in class that I did not understand and instead I asked myself more specific questions like “what part don’t I understand” and “where can I go to find the answer to this specific question?” One of the greatest things available to students today is the various sources of information available at all times in different forms. Physics is a subject that challenged me as a student; I learned to be resourceful in ways that I did not think I could do. I learned to use other materials like books published by other authors, and websites dedicated to introductory courses offered by other universities in the country, I asked students majoring in Physics to explain material in simpler terms, and sometimes took notes when other were explaining the subject. The internet can be a great tool for information too, but it also taught me importance of verifying the validity of information.

I learned to study because of my failures in physics; physics thought me not only the laws of nature but also to be a resourceful student looking for answers. Studying does not only consist of reading a book, and attending class, but the whole array of activities that one does in order to understand theory. Resourcefulness comes into very good use later in life; one must never rely solely on one source of information. My failed attempts in physics that led to finishing the entire series was one of my greatest success stories of my undergraduate career. Not only do I have a better understanding about movement of bodies and the flow of electrons, but also I am now a student that will go much further than reading a book to understand a subject. Resourcefulness was not a topic of study listed on the class syllabus as major topic of study during my senior year in physics. By taking initiative in seeking the information that would help solve my problems and move forward was the most important lesson I learned in physics. Resourcefulness remains a very important and effective studying tool; one should never give up all hope before exhausting all sources of information that can bring possibility of advancement.