Why I Like Physics

I wrote this essay for my AP Physics class which I took this past year, my senior year in high school.

When I began physics last fall, I fully expected to hate it. I was convinced that I would fail, that I would not understand it, that I would find it dull and useless. At first tentative, I approached each problem as a mountain to conquer and held my breath the whole way through. I took vigorous notes and made sure that each word and equation was stuck in my head exactly as it appeared. As I continued through the semester, though, something changed. I started not to close my eyes and cross my fingers at each problem, but to approach it calmly, even, dare I say, a bit excitedly. When I looked at everyday items—like a dropped pencil—there was a newness about them that I realized was my understanding of them. I was converted. To me, physics is the understanding of how our world functions—the laws that govern it that cannot be shaken by checks and balances. Physics is also realizing the beauty of these rules. They are not constrictions, chains, boundaries not to be crossed. They are perfection. They are logic, simplicity, complicatedness, all layered to create a universe. They are something celestial, something chaotic, something electrifying. From the quote we read in class—“ what about expressing them in dance?”—I was suddenly caught by the parallel between physics and drama (I am a bit of a theatre geek). My philosophy on theatre is that it is the creation of a parallel universe that reveals something about our own. Physics is the revelation of what makes our world the way it is.