Here I am, my first journal of many to come in the EMC program for the 2018-19 school year. Sadly, I have not decided on a topic yet for a variety of reasons.
One reason is simply because I have a lot on my plate over the summer. I’m currently in Taiwan as I’m writing this, visiting close family and friends that I haven’t seen in almost two years. Naturally, this puts a strain on my free time as I will have to spend time with them. Another thing on my plate is my studying for the SAT as well as the Biology E/M SAT. I’ve heard that it is wise to start studying for the SAT over the summer since Junior year is a lot to handle, so you don’t want to add laborious SAT studying on top of that. Regarding the Biology E/M SAT, I’ve decided to reteach the course to myself in a matter of ~2 months and take it in August. Why, you may ask? Because Biology is one of the more interesting subjects I have learned so far in my 10+ years of schooling. Not only does studying for the Bio SAT give my an increased amount of exposure, it is also one method to show my interest in it when writing college applications. So far, I have been picking it up pretty quickly. Perhaps this is an indicator for a true interest in the subject that could also lead into an EMC topic? Only time can tell for now.
Another reason why I think I have not picked a topic yet is because of my somewhat meticulous and over-preparing tendencies. Since this is an important opportunity to expose myself to something completely new (an experience which I personally think is crucial for all high schoolers to undergo), I want to make sure it is perfect. What I mean by this is that I want to pick the absolute best topic that I will have fun researching throughout the entire year. After all, an important feature of this program is that it shouldn’t necessarily feel like “work.” As a result, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time deciding on that “perfect” topic. Should it relate to Biology? How about something more unorthodox like time-travel? Questions like these have bounced around in my head quite a bit.
Lastly, for this somewhat topic-lacking journal, I would like to elaborate more on why I even chose to take EMC in the first place. To be concise, it would be best summarized as pure exposure to anything new of interest to me. My parents have always constantly stressed the importance and need of finding your “passion” in life — that is, a subject of interest that you can pursue for your entire adult life (as a job) with never ending happiness. I too, agree with this belief and I truly want to find something that I have a passion for. To me, EMC is currently one of the best possible ways I can strive towards finding that passion. I don’t want to screw up this opportunity and research a topic that isn’t interesting to me. Yet, at the same time, I know it is unrealistic to find the perfect one on the first try. In conclusion, finding a topic has been a much more time-consuming process than I expected, but it is necessary to be able to fulfill my take on the “end goals” for EMC.