One more challenge…..
Have you experienced the feeling of being in a group where you feel that everybody knows more than you do about a subject and that the way that people talk just make you wonder, “Oh boy what I am doing here?” I am starting to get involved with physics analysis and that is the way that I’ve been feeling lately. I have put lots of work into trying to expedite my learning process to catch up with my group, but I feel more and more behind every day. It has been good to have a very supportive group, but at the same time I have a taste of frustration in my mouth because I feel that I don’t have enough experience.
I know that life is a constant challenge and that nobody was born knowing everything. I know that things require time, and there is a learning curve. But at the same time, the process is hard, and it even hurts. The good part of all this is that even though that it’s difficult and challenging, I like it! To be a physicist you require dedication, love, perseverance and a genuine passion and fascination for nature. Probably the way that I feel now is the same way that I used to feel during my first couple years of college. Now, if I look back, I can say that I overcame many challenges and learned a lot. A couple days ago, I was looking at an elementary book of quantum mechanics and I thought…man, why was this so difficult to get back then? I hope that in a couple of years I will say the same about high energy physics analysis! I really hope so…..
I felt the same way this summer doing an undergraduate REU at the University of Cadiz. I kept wondering how I managed to get selected. Granted, the field was chemical ecology and not particle physics and it was probably quite a bit less complicated. But now I look back and wonder what was so difficult with it. Good luck with the physics.