(no subject)
Last week I was going through some old boxes of books and papers that had been gathering dust in the basement of my childhood home. The two boxes comprised my undergraduate and graduate careers, mostly the latter. They were good sized boxes and I sorted through them, deciding to trash around 90% of the contents.
Inside, I found texts, notebooks and papers. As I glanced at the work that I had once understood and submitted, I really had to wonder what on earth some of it was. Seriously, it was like a foreign language. I was amazed that at one point I could understand it. Apparently I understood it well since I believe I graduated with a 3.4 GPA or so. Heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, advanced engineering calculus. Gradients of ocean temperatures in a historical perspective, risk analysis of environmental hazards, near-Earth objects, geothermal energy.
Granted, I studied these topics over 15 years ago, but you would think I would have retained some of the material in my brain. I wonder if I've lost a significant amount of brain cells over the years, or the technical information was forced out of my head by thoughts of getting children dressed, enforcing food protection and separating the whites from darks. I was really bothered by this. Not that I was lamenting what my life had become or the things that I think about on a day to day basis. More so, I was lamenting my lost knowledge and the idea that once upon a time I might have been a rocket scientist.
In the end, I tossed the old notebooks and the torturous textbooks. I saved the papers that I wrote and the problems and solutions that I calculated. It's good to have a reminder that I'm not an idiot. :)
Inside, I found texts, notebooks and papers. As I glanced at the work that I had once understood and submitted, I really had to wonder what on earth some of it was. Seriously, it was like a foreign language. I was amazed that at one point I could understand it. Apparently I understood it well since I believe I graduated with a 3.4 GPA or so. Heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, advanced engineering calculus. Gradients of ocean temperatures in a historical perspective, risk analysis of environmental hazards, near-Earth objects, geothermal energy.
Granted, I studied these topics over 15 years ago, but you would think I would have retained some of the material in my brain. I wonder if I've lost a significant amount of brain cells over the years, or the technical information was forced out of my head by thoughts of getting children dressed, enforcing food protection and separating the whites from darks. I was really bothered by this. Not that I was lamenting what my life had become or the things that I think about on a day to day basis. More so, I was lamenting my lost knowledge and the idea that once upon a time I might have been a rocket scientist.
In the end, I tossed the old notebooks and the torturous textbooks. I saved the papers that I wrote and the problems and solutions that I calculated. It's good to have a reminder that I'm not an idiot. :)