Today I'm talking to you from somewhere that's pretty weird for me
Just off to the side behind me is my old primary school and it's somewhere I haven't visited for like 11 years now
So being back here sort of makes me think a bit about
how much I've changed and learned since I was a student here and I
Feel like the different stages of my life
I've really become a different person like when I was at school
I wasn't interested at all in science through like all of primary school most of high school, I had no ambitions to I
don't know, do anything academic or go into science and and now science is basically my life. It was this sort of
Happy accident in a way that I got
interested into something and I think it was actually for me
just watching documentaries on TV. That's the only place I really learnt about science
or learnt about the interesting things behind it. And just from there
I had this passion and this interest and I feel really lucky to have had that because that's driven a lot of my
career choices and study choices
ever since and
Now science is kind of like my entire identity
it's who I am, a lot of my friends are scientists and I feel like some of them most interesting and
motivations in my life are to do with figuring out the world around us. Now, pursuing something with such an interest is
not, I think, without some sort of sacrifice
So I was never cool or particularly popular at a high school. Like I have a bit of a following now on things like YouTube
People here like hearing about physics
but probably not so much at school and I sort of was a bit of an odd person out there. I didn't
really have other friends that were super into physics.
In fact, I didn't meet friends that were really like me until I got to uni. But I'll talk more about that later,
I just want to say
that I sort of feel it's a shame that being seen to pursue something like science
is kind of a nerdy pursuit and it's something that you're not going to be cool doing.
But I was fine with that
and in fact
I'm actually really grateful now that I was really sort of shy at high school because if
I'd ever felt like it was possible for me to be in that
coolest group, almost popular, then I probably wouldn't have gone for science or wouldn't have been really
studious about it because I would have probably cared more about
maintaining some sort of cool identity or trying to fit in. I definitely did things that
were against the idea of fitting in so I
remember in high school going to the library and
whilst everyone was sort of playing and joking around I would actually go and pick up like a science book
I remember picking up Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time or New Scientist magazines and actually just
wanting to sit by myself and read them and being okay with that and being okay with the fact that
doing that made me sort of seem like a bit of an outcast in a way.
but
I've always rathered stay at home and read a physics book than go to a party or to go and get drunk and I
Guess I'm not saying that you need to make those sort of sacrifices, like that
you can't drink and party and study physics. Of course you can.
But I guess in some ways for me pursuing something so intensely as I have science
did come with those sacrifices, but they didn't feel like sacrifices at the time because I
had no interest in
partying and going out.
I think one of the reasons that I
love YouTube so much and that I wanted to get involved on this platform is because this was one of the first places that I
did find people like me. I was
Really into the whole Nerdfighteria thing
So I was a follower of the Vlogbrothers and I found people there that were also like it wasn't just physics
but they are really into like certain subjects and they were proud to call themselves nerds in a way and
To not care about what other people thought of them and to just pursue what they were interested in and have intellectual
conversations and talk about just interesting stuff without being judged and
Finding that
community on YouTube because I didn't really have that in real life was a big thing for me and a big thing for my
learning and
Being okay with being a nerd. In fact, I loved that term.
I just wanted to find others that were also fine with it.
Now that was school and I did go to a pretty small school
But it wasn't until I went to uni
And was now majoring in physics that I found all these other people that were interested in physics, too
and it was sort of mind-blowing for me because I had never been able to have that before and I was
Talking to people who also watch the same youtube channels as me
They watched like Veritasium and Numberphile and they loved those and I was like, wow, I can actually talk about these things for someone in
real life because I'd never really spoken to people about it at school because I just I don't know I didn't I
didn't know people that were as passionate about science as I was. It was just so cool to be
surrounded by he's nerdy conversations and for it to finally feel just accepted and
to no longer feel like I was making a choice to be a bit of an outcast by pursuing this.
I was just sort of in my place and it felt really good.
So, I have had some comments from a few you guys that have been like you know, how do I
pursue something that I'm passionate about whether it's physics maths computer science something
But that I get teased for
for being interested in or that my parents don't support or my friends think I'm crazy
and I guess what I'm trying to say, is that just
If you know you're interested in something try not to care about
what that does to your social ranking or what your friends think of it at the time because as you go on to uni
Or get more specialized you'll find people that think exactly the same as you.
You will always find friends, if you look hard enough, who will accept you for your interests and
You know if you keep going and just stick with it
You'll get what I found which was to be surrounded by people who
are embracing the nerdy things and you're no longer the nerd it's just how it is.
So just keep going just keep pursuing what you know
you're interested in and eventually you will find other people that accept you for that and who share your interests
It's an amazing feeling to find that
But it can be a long road until you do so just keep going and and talk to other people here in the comments
I'll try to answer as many as I can
But I hope that people here feel like they can talk to each other about some of these things and that you're not alone in
Having, I guess, pretty nerdy interests.