Prior to college, I was never exceptionally good at physics or math and was always more interested in the liberal arts, primarily philosophy. I even planned to attend college as a philosophy major during my junior year of high school as I read up on the subject in my free time. At that time, however, I had not yet identified the specific questions that I found most interesting and would want to pursue in such a degree. With the onset of the pandemic and its lockdowns, though, I was allowed more time to read on my own and eventually became interested in questions that dealt with the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the nature of consciousness. As I continued to read and think about these questions, I realized that they are now questions better suited for physicists to ask more rigorously and possibly provide partial answers to. At this point, I recognized that if I was serious about pursuing these sorts of questions, attending college for a degree in physics would be a prerequisite.
Deciding to apply for college as a physics major after having spent my life unconvinced of my ability in the subject meant I would need to revisit the math I had forgotten and learn physics from the ground up. As my junior year of high school was ending, I began independently reviewing the trigonometry and algebra I had forgotten and worked out basic physics problems. To properly prepare myself for a degree in physics, I recognized that taking calculus and calculus-based physics in my senior year would be crucial. Not already on track to be able to take these classes, I enrolled in a precalculus class over the summer and continued my independent study. When I applied to colleges, I primarily considered liberal arts schools with strong physics departments, which led me to Carthage College.
During the summer before my freshman year of college, I set out to complete a very demanding hike with my best friend from high school, his dad, and his cousin. We planned to hike Minnesota's Superior Hiking Trail, which follows the shore of Lake Superior and is 310 miles in length, in just a week. Given the time constraint, we planned to be hiking around forty miles every day. I ended up only being able to take three days of this, having to rest on the fourth day and begin reducing my mileage in the remaining days, which slowed the group down and prevented us from reaching the goal of finishing in a week. I learned for the first time how my body reacted to long physical exertions during this trip but did not feel the urge to do something like it again for a long period of time after we stopped on the seventh day. I came out of this experience knowing that this ability to endure extended periods of hard work would be at least somewhat helpful for pursuing a degree in physics, which is something I thought about while hiking, but I wasn't yet able to enjoy myself in the moment of actually engaging in this work.