god i took my first bio exam on tuesday and I got to a diagram we looked over in class where we had to describe the intricate steps of retrovirus reproduction and I was like “fuck i didnt memorize this diagram I’m screwed” but I came back to it and realized that based on my knowledge of how retroviruses function, I was able to identify every step and I got a perfect score on the exam and I’m just like looking at my hands like
is this what it’s like to actually Understand the material
yes.
Understanding the material is one of the best feelings I get from school.
Buddy… that’s the whole point
Cool I know that but we are raised in an academic system that encourages memorization and regurgitation of materials and most teachers in my life have not cared at all if I didn’t understand something, as long as I could parrot it back to them, which worked until I was in high school and then it turned out that I, like many of my peers, had been set up for failure.
I was “naturally” good at English, so my teachers told me to pursue that. I wanted to pursue science, but it took me longer to catch on, so they told me not to bother and let me fall through the cracks.
So I’ve had to work extremely hard to catch up and find professors willing to teach me basic concepts I should have learned as a teenager or even a child because some teacher back then couldn’t be bothered to spend the extra time.
And now I’m celebrating the fact that I am finally comprehending and thriving so.
So we got an Amazon Echo and we changed the wake word to “Computer” and now I feel like I’m on the Enterprise all the time. Additionally, whenever I watch Star Trek, she only responds to “computer” when Data says it and it’s kind of adorable. Not Picard, not La Forge, not Troi, not Dr. Crusher, not Riker. Not anyone but Data. The other night Data asked his Computer what the time was and my Computer told him it was 10:47. Watching Star Trek is even more fun now
