It turned out that my timing was spot on. As I exited the lecture hall, I watched as on the opposite side a stream of students began to pour in.
At first, I couldn't spot Olivia among the crowd. But that's when she suddenly popped out on my left, and together, we made our way into the hall.
We got ourselves situated sowhere in the middle rows, blending into the buzz of the students.
The professor, who was set to deliver our lecture, entered the room. He had a slightly receding hairline and a small stature. The students hushed their voices down and began to listen to the professor.
"Welco to MIT students, we're gonna get started today with Calculus, I will show you how math will be taught here... Well, at least in the first couple of weeks."
"So let tell you briefly what's in store, the first topic is a Derivative, we are gonna look at it from many different points of view, the geotric interpretation, is one that we are gonna focus on today and then we are gonna talk about why Calculus is so fundantal, that is, I'm gonna ntion the importance of derivatives to all asurents, be it science, engineering, economics, political science, etc. and I'm telling you if soone is gonna teach you well it's gonna be at MIT" - "Well unless Aliens can get you on a better Math course. Do you know any aliens?"
"They just discovered life on another planet yesterday." A guy in the front row exclaid, he had striking blond hair and an athletic physique. He spoke with such enthusiasm that it seed as if he couldn't wait to share the news. However, he must have mistaken the professor's joke with an actual question.
I gotta admit, I knew what he was talking about, but it didn't feel like the right ti to talk about this.
I kind of rembered reading sothing about it, or at least skimming the headlines. So, here's the deal: they just cracked the case with the Kepler Telescope yesterday, and it's all about the K2-18b planet. This bad boy does a full lap around its star in just 33 days, and it's right in that sweet spot they call the "habitable zone."
That's not all. It's been common knowledge that this planet's got a liquid ocean under a dense layer of hydrogen, it's a Hycean Planet, but yesterday, they stumbled upon Dithyl Sulfide. And here's the thing – on Earth, it's only produced naturally, thanks to the bacteria and plankton in the ocean. Basically, we're talking about so serious marine life vibes happening out there!
The professor casually brushed off the comnt and started to explain how you can find a derivative of a function through its geotrical interpretation. Finding a function's tangent line at a specific point and calculating its slope.
While most of us in the hall were already familiar with these concepts from previous courses, the professor's love for math could be felt and the passionate approach set this lecture apart from our high school experiences, especially when compared to Mr. Johnson's teaching... That's for sure.
After deriving the formula for the derivative and providing an overview of what One Variable Calculus really is about, the professor concluded the lecture with an encouraging note, "I'm holding out for you guys to get the nod for the program so we can dive even deeper into this, you will be able to find derivatives for any type of function."
After a round of applause, I left the hall with Olivia and after taking a short stroll together through the campus we decided to go back to New York. We had 2 weeks left before the results of the SAT would be out.
After I got back to my apartnt it was already late, but I decided to post sothing new on my blog, it wasn't like soone was actually reading it, but it also helped organize my own thoughts. I made a post on the Learning Tree of Math as well as the mory Palace technique for rembering shit.
Looking at my phone I got a ssage from Alex
'Yo, bro, I got a position in G1, I'll be playing top main'
He got a spot in an e-sport team. I guess there would be a party coming as soon as he cos back. And just as I thought, 5 minutes later I got another ssage from him.
'We're drinking man, Alia will co by our spot tomorrow, you can invite Olivia or sothing. Wink'
'You know that Lucas is back right?' I answered
'For sure, he can drink with us what's the big deal.'
Eh...
The next day I finally decided to ask Lucas why he stayed in this cheap apartnt and he responded that he likes it when money stays in his bank account and not out of it.
"I like money, lots of it" was word for word what he said.
He also said that living cheap gives him inspiration
Yea. I don't want to know what kind of inspiration he is getting and where it's coming from.
With just a asly two weeks left on the clock, I figured it was high ti to sort out my financial situation or at least lay down the foundation to drop a thesis that'd make it in the papers or co up with a patent that so big-shot company would wanna snatch up.
I kicked things off by wrapping my head around Physics Fundantals for college. Montum, Fluid Dynamics, Electricity and Magnetism. Thermodynamics, Optics, and Waves, not to ntion the down-and-dirty basics of nuclear physics and particle physics.
I had that all locked down like a vault. But what really got my juices flowing was diving into nuclear decay, thinking about the neutrons flipping into protons and vice-versa, with one of the quarks exchanging while the nucleus emitted bosons.
And as far as math goes, I was all about honing my proof-writing ga and putting the finishing touches on the Abstract Algebra course.
...
anwhile, in one of my dreams, still with three blue cots zooming past, and a bunch of those eerie green ones circling around them, sothing went down.
It was like I woke up inside of that dream. It stopped feeling like I was just watching a flick; I could actually move my head around, and check out the distant sky, but that's about as far as I could go.
Since the last ti, I didn't hear any more whispers calling out, which really had wondering what was it all about.
In the second week, I thought, "Let's dive into so freakin' Electronics." Grabbed this book on the basics of electronics, and with all the provided examples, I was cruising through Nodal Analysis, Kirchhoff's Laws, Filters, and Rectifiers.
Hell, I even got into AC analysis, figuring out Amplifiers and dissecting systems with a bunch of bipolar and unipolar transistors and all sorts of different connected circuitry.
I didn't have the ti or opportunity to work with real circuits, but I was definitely making massive progress.
Lastly, I tackled Control Fundantals. Learning how to lay down the law of a physical system using fancy differential equations.
And what really made go, "Holy shit!", was that you can flip that physical system into an electrical circuit, believe it or not. Just need so Capacitors, Coils, and Resistors to map out the whole darn thing and analyze it's behavior.
The two weeks flew by, and I was making steady moves in a bunch of different fields. I was just about ready to open up so online proof forums as well as sift through existing patents, to get a feel for the industry, you know?
Maybe catch a hint or two about where to kick things off. It was ti to roll up my sleeves and start digging.
'Paching!!!' 30 minutes later I heard a sound indicating that I got myself an email.
Today was the day. I clicked on the ssage with anticipation and read:
'Dear Maximillian
On behalf of the Admissions Committee, it is my pleasure to offer you admission to the MIT Class of 2023. You were identified as one of the most talented and promising students in one of MIT's most competitive applicant pools ever. Your commitnt to personal excellence makes you stand out as soone who will thrive in our academic environnt.
...
Furthermore, in consideration of your outstanding SAT Score of 1600 and the glowing recomndation from the head of the Math Departnt, Acting Professor Milik, we are pleased to extend an offer for a Full Scholarship at MIT. We cordially invite you to a eting to discuss the details of this opportunity, scheduled for July 21st.
Sincerely,
Etnis Jones
Dean of Admissions
'
"Holy fuck! eting in 2 weeks it is then!"
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