Math Is Fun Forum

Mageurna

Novice

Registered: 2024-12-24

Posts: 1

From high school dropout to physics master's student

Hiya folks, I just made this account but I've been a fan of this website for a long while. Just wanted to share my progress and say thanks to anyone on here who's contributed who might see this. I think I sent a similar message a few years ago during undergrad but I couldn't remember my old password and my email wasn't cooperating- since I think I only made one message before though, it doesn't matter to me. But I remember getting to thank Bob and Jai haha!

Anyway, about 6 and a half years ago I was a high school dropout who barely knew arithmetic, but as fate would have it, I accidentally smacked a quantum mechanics book off a shelf in a local bookstore and decided it called to me. After reading the basics I was hooked- until I ran into the Schrodinger equation and realized I needed more math in my brain to understand it. That's how I discovered this website and wound up falling in love with math.

Now I've graduated from undergrad and I'm in a physics master's program in Europe. I was just reviewing some numerical plasma physics lectures when the Banach theorem was brought up as an explanation for why something the professor did was reasonable- and this forum was the first thing my mind went to. And then the nostalgia hit.

There's a lot that's happened these past few years, loads of chaos and trauma, my dogs are gone, my best friend is gone, and yet, when I feel sometimes like maybe I've lost all my concepts to the daily madness, the memories of feeling pure joy on this site (and paul's online math notes!) occasionally will find me. I think those kinds of memories are keeping me glued together, mostly.

People often say what's put on the internet is forever- this website is one instance where I really hope that's true. Not only did this website and the contributions made on it show me that math really is fun, but it also taught me that, though life is wack a lot of the time, sometimes it's just happy chilling with something that connects you to the universe through more reasonable abstractness. This place for me is like a well-worn evolving storybook with occasional new epilogue chapters that I hope never end for as long as I live and even after that.

More than sincerely,
- Mageurna

(PS: Since I've only ever posted on here once before years ago, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right; sorry in advance if this somehow shows up in entirely the wrong location or some such thing.)

Bob

Administrator

Registered: 2010-06-20

Posts: 10,636

Re: From high school dropout to physics master's student

hi Mageurna

Welcome back to the forum. 

Bob

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Children are not defined by school ...........The Fonz
You cannot teach a man anything;  you can only help him find it within himself..........Galileo Galilei
Sometimes I deliberately make mistakes, just to test you!  …………….Bob

Jai Ganesh

Administrator

Registered: 2005-06-28

Posts: 48,759

Re: From high school dropout to physics master's student

Hi Mageurna,

Welcome back to the forum!

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It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.