What dd'you want to be ?, what dd'you study ?, what're you now ?

[tmaromine]

I've been pondering my future lately...

 

Most of Hypography's members are interested in science, students of science, or work in science, and I'd like to here personal storeys... I'm curious.

 

What did you want to be when you'er younger ? Where did you go to college/university, and what did you study ? What are you now ? ...Things like that.

 

I want to have a profession in science. . .I love science. And philosophy (which, I don't know if it always agrees with science). Physics particularly interest me, but. . .that requires good math skills, aye ? I'm in Geometry right now, and am levelled at a (high) C / (low) B, but that may mean nothing toward the end of high school. If you work in science, especially if it uses math, which classes did you take ? Science is greatly abstract thought and logic (or, at least how I define science, and from what I've been taught), and that's easy – the numbers part is a little harder for me, even though I know that it really all makes logical sense, numbers do.

 

And another factor for me, is, money... I love science, and I'd love to make somewhere in it my career, but, I'd like a fair amount of money... Generally, scientists, or professors, say, work in a university/college, get paid its salary, and if they come up with a new idea or are moving along in something that few others have been able to follow, they get funded for that ? And, there are companies, like NASA, and cetera... I don't need to be some Wallstreet broker, but I desire to live happily in my dreamhouse in my dreamlocation, all while educating my mind of the Universe. I'd like to go to an Ivy League also.....

 

I'm going into 9th grade next year (I'm 15 – in Octobre: 16 , but I started school late....) and I feel like I need to make some changes or something... I'm going into (Advanced, I think) Biology 1, and Algebra 2. (I'm in Geometry – had Algebra 1 , and this year I got switched from regular 8th grade Science to 9th grade Honours because I watched a Science Channel show about Hawking and black holes, and it motivated me.) Maybe there isn't much more to do next year pertaining to science and math... Any things I should try to do while in Junior High/early HS, and any things I should watch for ?...

 

So: if you're pre college/university, what d'you want to do, and what are you doing to try to get there ; if in college/university, what are you studying ?; if you've been past your I-want-to-be days and college/uni, what do you do (and I guess too, did you get where you wanted ?, though, that can be optional...)

 

Thanks for anything. :artgallery:

[PuGZ]

G'day,

 

I'm still more-or-less in your position, albeit a few years ahead. I'm in my final year of high school and I'm looking forward to starting either a BSc, a BE or both next year. The arrangments are different in Australia to the USA, but I'm doing English, French, Physics, Maths Methods and Specialist Maths in my final year at school.

 

I guess the best advice for you is to read as much as possible! If science requires anything of you; it's an open mind! The best scientific minds aren't those that accept everything as tried and true, but question everything - this is at the heart of scientific endeavour. Reading as much as possible and from as varied sources as possible will open your mind to possibilities you didn't think possible and will be good preparation for a prospective future in science.

 

Also, of course, pay attention in school. You may tell yourself that "you don't need to work now, you'll do it when it really counts", but then you'll find yourself in a lot of strife when you start to fall behind and haven't a chance of catching up. Trust us and your educators when they say you need to learn what they're trying to teach you -- they do know a thing or two, surprisingly!

[tmaromine]

In the language area, I'm going into Spanish 2 Honours, and I want to take French, along with Spanish 2H. Though, I doubt I can because of the way my schedule'd have to be. I most definitely will continue in English ; History I don't know... Next year I shall have a quite amazing teacher (she was recognised by the White House/First Lady as Teacher of the Year !), and I'll be quite interested in history, but, I don't know about years after.

 

I've quite an open mind. . .I just need to be a little less all-excepting. :artgallery: (I've questioned more things related to life itself than science laws...) Almost any reading I've ever done besides that in class is from Wikipedia, or here, or links I've found from here or Wikipedia... (I know Wikipedia isn't always correct – questioning should be mandatory when reading there.) I've a good. . .great, mental-abstract mind, or so I think. No one else seems to 'understand' or bother to pay attention to some things in life, so that's where I get my support that my mind is rather. . .thinkingful.

 

There is no problem in school - I'm a good student. Only in Geometry have I low low grades... Almost always, or it used to be always, I have/had good grades. I've A in English, History, Science, Spanish , it's simply that Geometry. In Algebra I had a little better, so I hope Algebra 2 brings some more "easiness" in math. I know that surprisingly, the teachers do not what they're talking about some times.

 

Somewhere last night I read something like: "It's always hard for a person of great intellectuality to find a career they want to go into." (Some thing like that...) It's rather true, I think ; I love music-making (though I can't write any full song), and I love video taking/editing. I also love philosophy. And also computers and technology. And architecture. And science. Really I could get my self into a career in any of those areas I think. . .so far I've simply chosen science.

[PuGZ]

If you are studying the two languages and enjoy them, have you considered studying Linguistics? In that field you could combine scientific rigour with human languages and really go anywhere!

 

Best of all (in my mind, at least), there are some very large, meaty problems that remain unsolved to this day and would be incredibly pertinent to society if they could be solved. Of course, I'm talking about natural language parsing and translation. With an abstract mind, you would do very well at separating syntax from semantics - which is exactly what such an endeavour would require of you.

 

Just another option to consider. :evil:

[tmaromine]

I well enjoy languages. . .I love them, and I'm good at them. I'm rather fluent in Spanish (after coming from a Spanish 1 class that was split between two years: A and :evil:. But if one compared me to any of my other classmates (except one – she's quite fluent also), I am fluent... I've taught myself an ok amount of Italian, and a little bit of French.

 

Any way, I do love languages, and I have thought about them/it (linguistics) for career, I just didn't know where to go with it. But definitely, computer translation is a huge problem – ask my Spanish teacher. :) Because of Spanish, and that I actually went home and looked things up on Spanish last year while the rest just bothered with Spanish as much as any other class in school, I see many of English's little idiosyncrasies, and all these other things that few probably ever even think of... To perfect Spanish, I've had to distant myself from English's rules and find asbtractish meanings. So, I do have a good mind in and for languages...

 

Thanks for the idea. :hihi: