My life as a learner can be divided in two ways: fascination and pride. There isn't any subject that I hate. You know how some people think there is one thing they love to study and others they find to be a waste of time? It was never like that with me. I love learning. I love the puzzles and intellectual stimulation unique to each discipline of academia. However, depending on the subject, I view them with either fascination or pride.
What I mean is this: I find biology, history, psychology, theology, philosophy, etc. fascinating. I don't perceive them as especially difficult subjects but I love learning about them. I love making connections between different historical events. I love constructing philosophical or theological arguments. I think biology and psychology have a lot of curious information that is fun to learn (especially when studied together). I love these subjects for the mental stimulation they provide and the intellectual games I can play with them.
Math, chemistry, physics, and English on the other hand are something I do for the pride. I love the feeling of looking at a complex diagram with foreign equations (like the one pictured above) and knowing what it means. It's difficult to understand these subjects. They can be abstract and complicated. There is A LOT of high level math. But after working for hours on a single problem with more Greek letters than numbers and 4 pages of mathematical derivations later, coming to the solution is cathartic. Stepping back and seeing the gibberish I just wrote and knowing that I can read the gibberish brings me a pride that motivates me in these tough subjects. In English, writing a well constructed paper is the same way. A sense of accomplishment and pride.
So my learning has been driven by these two forces. Depending on the subject I'm driven by either fascination or pride rather than the attainment of a grade or academic recognition.
What I mean is this: I find biology, history, psychology, theology, philosophy, etc. fascinating. I don't perceive them as especially difficult subjects but I love learning about them. I love making connections between different historical events. I love constructing philosophical or theological arguments. I think biology and psychology have a lot of curious information that is fun to learn (especially when studied together). I love these subjects for the mental stimulation they provide and the intellectual games I can play with them.
Math, chemistry, physics, and English on the other hand are something I do for the pride. I love the feeling of looking at a complex diagram with foreign equations (like the one pictured above) and knowing what it means. It's difficult to understand these subjects. They can be abstract and complicated. There is A LOT of high level math. But after working for hours on a single problem with more Greek letters than numbers and 4 pages of mathematical derivations later, coming to the solution is cathartic. Stepping back and seeing the gibberish I just wrote and knowing that I can read the gibberish brings me a pride that motivates me in these tough subjects. In English, writing a well constructed paper is the same way. A sense of accomplishment and pride.
So my learning has been driven by these two forces. Depending on the subject I'm driven by either fascination or pride rather than the attainment of a grade or academic recognition.