Undergraduate /
IS PHYSICS A WOMAN THING?- MY COMMON APP ESSAY. [7]
A lot of people told me not to post my essay to the public because of plagiarism, but I just have read many posts on this site and it's pretty much close to my deadline already so I just need someone help me with this.WARNING: THIS ESSAY IS RIDICULOUSLY LONG! 1240 WORDS, PLEASE HELP ME TO CUT IT DOWN.
Is Physics a woman thing?I always find it amusing to look at people's expressions when I tell them I not only major in Business Studies but also in Physics. The first reason for such reactions is, perhaps, because the two courses seem pretty much unrelated, but what causes them even more surprise is simply because I'm a girl.Very often, my mother reminded me of how difficult it is for a woman to be successful in natural science ,and that, as a female, perhaps, I should have found my interest in a "less mechanical" subject. Her notion urged me to wonder why I enjoy Physics that much, while most of my girl friends would rather not hear a word about it.
I will not deny the many statistics that prove the dominant number of males who master in this field. However, I do argue that there should be no possible boundary that stops us females from inquiring into Physics, the so-called a guy thing. In my A level Physics class, there are only three girls, including myself. The boys often make fun that we are not feminine enough to study other subjects, and of course, such a statement could always ignite a debate. What makes people think that Physics always appears dull to the female? Is it true that only men can excel in this subject? I have always been asking myself those questions.
I still remember my first day entering an IGCSE Physics lesson, where everything was so foreign. The class size was moderate compared to that of other subjects. Most of the students were boys and they all seemed to understand quite a significant portion of the theory already. On the other hand, I was uncertain about everything. My English was so weak that I could not understand half a page of the assignment. The subject teacher, at the time, Mr.Randell, was a middle aged, wise, yet sharp man, and a strict disciplinarian. His face always wore a signature frown; he rarely smiled. He made me feel afraid to ask questions, but, then again, my vocabulary was too limited for myself to make sensible communication. Within the next few months, I was frightened to face my teacher, knowing that he would soon discover my inability. Of course, he did, and frequently I was called up to the board to solve challenging questions.. The intense pressure was enough to make me want to drop the subject. But then, a week before our first exam, Mr.Randell asked me to see him after school. He gave me a Physics dictionary, a pack of notes with many illustrating diagrams. "There", he said. " You need more vision, more passion and more belief."
At that very moment, I realized that I had let myself be held back so long by the fear of failure. Being encouraged, I was motivated to develop the necessary skills to tackle rigorous challenges that this subject has to offer. I continued to make mistakes, but I never ceased to learn. It took me a significant time, but eventually I became one of the top scorers in my class. My improvement might have been slow, but it created a firm foundation for my interest in Physics to flourish. It has given me the great power to penetrate and discover the world around myself, the world inside me, and the world beyond me. It created a habit in me for logic, and gave me the ability to visualize concepts. It satisfied my curiosity, while, at the same time, raised my want to explore and inquire into matter and phenomena. It urged me to wonder how the bulb glows, to detect what would cause my printer to stop working, to work three days non-stop to build a car model that ran by the force of elastic bands and a mouse trap!
However, what interests me the most about Physics is actually the many experiments that we got to conduct. I will never forget how much fun we had when my teacher introduced us to the Van de Graaff generator, when everybody was fighting to touch the aluminum ball just to see our hair stand on end. What I see is that Physics is not just about spending hours on calculation books, rushing through stacks of analysis papers and projects. Its core actually emphasizes the discovery of wonderful things in life.
Speaking like that does not mean I never had any problem with Physics experiments.Before developing my attention and joy for this subject, I always thought that experiments are unnecessary. Why bother conducting them while the answers are already there in your text book? Plus, I have never been that dexterous when working in the lab. In fact, even when I have become capable in solving skills and understanding scientific concepts, and methods, sometimes, I still got in big trouble with the apparatuses.Hence, my temporary solution was to avoid it as much as I could. I always just sketched out diagrams and wrote down what I expected to happen according to the theory. There, much easier! However, my teacher was never satisfied with my 'method'. He urged me to carry out the experiment myself, as he often said: "Let's the world surprises you." So it did. My first experiment disappointed me. My results were nothing close to the theory. It has shaken my utter belief in every scientific fact. "Was it me or was it the experiment that failed?" I asked myself. That question stirred my interest. I started to perform many trials and record errors of any experiment I carried. I tested different methods, feeling hungry to find out what caused my results to go against the theory. Then, I realized that everything was built up from hypotheses, the reason why science has its place in our lives is because nothing is absolute, science is not for us to believe, but for us to challenge the prediction itself through experimentation. While the theory teaches me what happens and what, as a physicist, I should believe in, the experimental side reminds me to justify, to bound back, and to question the angle of accuracy of the theory. Most of the time, our experiments conform to the theory, but there would be times for them to oppose one another, just like the common notion that females never enjoy science, when in reality, many of them do.
In the three and a half year period I have so far spent majoring in Physics, there have been many obstacles and challenges I have encountered. I would say this subject is not easy and, admittedly, as a female myself, I have a few times thought of moving away from it.However, I never did, simply because I have been lucky enough to explore the beauty under its rigid appearance. It has taught me many things that have gone beyond scientific facts that, I believe, no other subject would have offered. Yes, Physics indeed has colored my world and given me the opportunity to widen my horizons and to think differently. Without this subject, I would have never developed personal resilience, but most importantly, I would never have realized that there is no such thing that should remain exclusively a guy's activity. I believe that if the males can do something, we females definitely should not be afraid to give it a try. After all,if Einstein were a female, would you say that Physics is not a woman thing?
