What Subject Are You Passionate About In School?

[A Link In Time]

History is overall a very important subject; history will repeat itself if we don't learn from our past mistakes. The documentation of history is probably one of the most important things we can do; preserving the legacy of humans is a necessary thing - even if society were to crumble, history must be kept, so it will be served as a precedent to the new civilization. It would inevitably be up to them to learn and distinguish correct actions, and ethically wrong ones.

The only downside to my passion is the lack of real work that I can do with it. Becoming a historian isn't a high-paying job, usually they end up just being a teacher or professor, which is one of the last things I'd ever want to do. There's the occasional historian that is in a movie that highlights a certain part of history, but with the lack of real viewing demand outside of schools, I'd assume the pay isn't very high. The only potentially high-paying thing that could come out of being a historian is writing books. However, my pay would depend on who really buys it; historical books isn't a risk I'm willing to take.

Creative Writing, however, is a much nicer passion for me. I've been able to use my abilities on Zelda Dungeon many times - whether I'm posting, or writing a story. This passion began in sixth grade when I was given creative writing for a single semester. I wish I had it the entire year, because it was a great semester. The teacher was a great man; I had him in seventh grade as well. He inevitably was the reason for my passion in writing; he was the one who suggested that I start writing after I wrote a small series using his short story homework. The quality of it was much worse than my current writing ability, but he saw potential in my capabilities.

Very true about history repeating itself. Take the French Revolutions. :xd: (I cannot treat the French seriously after my teacher backstabbing them at every turn . He even offered extra credit for whoever would bring down the fifth French Republic ). Discontent with the current political system led to social upheaval in that country in 1789, 1830, and again in 1848. The first executed the inept (he was in no way tyrannical) ruler Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette (to whom extreme prejudice was channeled towards for merely being a foreigner). In 1830, the Restoration monarchy was unseated and Louis Philippe assumed power. In 1848, another general wave of revolutions swept Europe with France once again being a central area of conflict. Louis Napoleon then assumed power. Now forgive me for I could go on for pages about European History for I am as passionate about it as you seem to be regarding U.S. History, which I find slightly less exciting (granted I do take delight in studying Presidential Elections and am therefore constantly swarming the 2012 Presidential Election MD thread). In High School, you should follow through by taking Advancement Placement or International Bachelor something history courses (can't think of the name for that's not my region!). AP European History, AP World History, and AP United States History are awaiting you. Of the two former, most likely one or the other is offered but the latter is definitely available and required. :bleh:

Writing can be high-paying; writers like J.K. Rowling don't even have to write another book and they'll be set for life financially. Naturally I wouldn't be in it for the money, but it would be a good way to use my passion of writing and still make a decent amount of money. Being an author can also lead to movie deals, which is another way to get money. As stated earlier, it's not so much the money, but living a comfortable life is definitely an ideal thing.

In a sense, I could mix the two passions, writing historical fiction. Historical fiction isn't very popular usually, but when written well, it can end up selling many copies. There are also advantageous factors to historical fiction instead of historical nonfiction; you don't have to follow everything, you can distort facts, add events, or even omit a few. History is just your setting; the rest is up to you.

Creative writing and history are definitely my favorite subjects in school for many reasons. Making these passions into my job is ideal; I want to have fun while I work. Writing seems like a more plausible job for me, history might end up just being something on the side.

I find some luck and knowledge of current popular trends to be important in pursuing a strong and profitable literary career. There is no doubt that J.K. Rowling was inspired to write her magical adventures in Hogwarts in part because of the spectacular success of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Ring books (why haven't I read those yet?!). And movie deals, definitely only come to truly popular series such as most recently The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and The Lightning Thief and soon to be The Hunger Games.

As for historical fiction, I truly don't think that's a safe bet. What's the most popular example you can think of from the genre? Science fiction has arguably taken the world by storm arguably due to the rise in usefulness of science in benefiting people in their lives throughout the twentieth and now into the twenty first century.

It may be interesting to see you as a future author. :yes:

 

[Nicole]

Ooh, boy, I could go on and on about what subjects I love and why... I'm not sure I have a favorite, currently. I would say my favorite subject is science, but being in 8th grade (in a poor school, no less), our science curriculum isn't too great. I love astronomy, biology, chemistry... all the stuff we don't really touch on too much (though we did start the pseudo-chemistry chapter today). I plan on taking Biology my freshman year, and I can't wait to get into the more detailed concepts they offer.

I'd like to major in Biology, or some form of science. According to some website that I cannot recall, one of the careers in a field of science (lolIdon'tevenrememberwhatitwas, maybe it had to do with physics) is supposed to grow 72% by like... 2020 or something. I'm not seriously doing any research about career opportunities, but I one of my close friends brought up the subject so I started thinking about it a little bit.

I was also once asked what science field I'd probably like the most, out of Biomedicine, Biochemistry, and Biophysics. I couldn't decide, as I love anatomy and the biology of life, chemistry and atoms and elements and all that "mad-sciencey" stuff, and scientific theories (mixed in with a little [more like a lot of] math very much. I'd like a career that somehow combines them all, but I don't think that's exactly feasible. I'd probably like to steer more towards Biomed. My dream, besides making a ton of money, is to make some sort of discovery (or whatever) that majorly impacts society positively and really helps people. If I were to find some sort of amazing cure, that would both be possible, helping people and making a huge amount of money.

Next on my list in English/Applied Writing. I actually took my English and Writing midterms today, and I have to say... I had a lot of fun. Perhaps it was because several of the concepts on our midterm weren't covered in class this year (we'd learned them last year, with a different teacher), I knew them anyway, and I also knew most other kids did not know these concepts, and it gave me a very satisfying feeling. I love words, I really do. I don't exactly love to write, but I'm a pretty good writer, if I do say so myself. This stems from my better-than-average vocabulary and the fact that I'm so anal about grammar mistakes that both my content and sentence structure are almost flawless for my 8th grade level.

After that, I'd have to say... Social Studies or Math. Both programs at my school are terrible for me; they move at a pace far too slow, and I just can't appreciate the actual subject. I've always been ahead of my (pre-Algebra/half Algebra 1) math class, but now that I've learned the main concepts for Algebra 1 (thanks Kybyrian =D), this pre-Algebra stuff is just laughable. Social Studies is a pretty cool topic. I'm not overly fond of American history; it's interesting, but we've covered most of the broad subjects by now, and we won't be getting into any details until high school. I like learning about the history of ancient civilizations. I absolutely love Greek, Roman, and Egyptian history and mythology. Additionally, I love politics and debating. I'm great with words (did I mention I like words?) and I'm pretty smooth in a debate. I like to debate things with my friends, although at this age, most kids are far too narrow-minded to even have their own (not stupid) opinions. (Luckily, my best friend thinks a lot like me, and she's one of the more intelligent students in my grade. She's fun to debate with/convince my ideas are right.)

My favorite elective (I suppose I'll call it an elective) is gym. I love sports, and the majority of my class in fairly unathletic, so it's mildly amusing to destroy them in basketball games and whatnot. I'm not fond of music; I plan to take Foundation Art in my freshman year instead of any music course. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love listening to music and singing along, by myself. Learning about music and composing it... not something I'm fond of.

 

[Austin]

The only class I really enjoyed in high school was an AP Government and Politics course I took in my senior year. I was too stupid to appreciate anything else. =(

I've started to study Japanese and computer science in college but it was more out of process of elimination (as in, what courses would I dislike the least?) than out of a genuine passion for the subject. I'd feel somewhat uncomfortable saying I was fond of them just because it seems like it would be insulting to those who actually love and enjoy the subject and put lots of effort into it.

 

[Xinnamin]

I'd like to major in Biology, or some form of science. According to some website that I cannot recall, one of the careers in a field of science (lolIdon'tevenrememberwhatitwas, maybe it had to do with physics) is supposed to grow 72% by like... 2020 or something. I'm not seriously doing any research about career opportunities, but I one of my close friends brought up the subject so I started thinking about it a little bit.

I was also once asked what science field I'd probably like the most, out of Biomedicine, Biochemistry, and Biophysics. I couldn't decide, as I love anatomy and the biology of life, chemistry and atoms and elements and all that "mad-sciencey" stuff, and scientific theories (mixed in with a little [more like a lot of] math very much. I'd like a career that somehow combines them all, but I don't think that's exactly feasible. I'd probably like to steer more towards Biomed. My dream, besides making a ton of money, is to make some sort of discovery (or whatever) that majorly impacts society positively and really helps people. If I were to find some sort of amazing cure, that would both be possible, helping people and making a huge amount of money.

Have fun with that lol, it's every bit as bad as everyone says it is :bleh:
Research is definitely a huge career field though, and a fun one to boot.

But in all seriousness, me being a biomed engineer major should in and of itself describe my academic passions precisely. Been a science geek my whole life, always with a bias towards biology. Apparently when I was younger I would spend my free time reading about animals in children's encyclopedias, and I had several other very large science of life encyclopedias that I would browse randomly. I was always just fascinated by how things work, why things are the way they are, what natural laws exist and why they exist, why living creatures are so diverse, from the simplest unicellular organisms to the most complex mammalian structures. I loved the smell of science labs and that feeling of pure ecstasy that came with dissecting organisms to see how everything fit together. I loved how science was a constantly changing field that was, at it's heart, imperfect and thus would always have room for growth. My aunt was also a biomed engineering major and now works in cancer research, and I would love nothing more than to do something similar; to just be in a lab running experiments to try and piece together just a tiny segment of how natural biological processes work. It's either that, or I go the med school route and do practical science, but I think I'm more a research-oriented scientist (not really sure, not enough experience with practical science to decide which I like better) so that's still up for debate.

Chem and physics are thus also subjects that I love very much. Chemistry feels like an extension of biology to me sometimes, and I'm really only ever interested in biochem or organic chem related topics: how elements of a living organism actually achieve life functions. As for physics, that applies to the logic-loving part of my brain. Scientific theories are fascinating to me, learning the natural laws of the world and why they work that way.

By extension of physics, I do enjoy most of my math courses...but only when they make sense. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of my deal with theoretical and abstract math (curse you linear algebra), but things like calculus, while I'm not particularly good at it by my personal standards, I am at least passionate about learning it, even if I don't love it.

 

[Koosholts]

The only class I really enjoyed in high school was an AP Government and Politics course I took in my senior year. I was too stupid to appreciate anything else. =(

I've started to study Japanese and computer science in college but it was more out of process of elimination (as in, what courses would I dislike the least?) than out of a genuine passion for the subject. I'd feel somewhat uncomfortable saying I was fond of them just because it seems like it would be insulting to those who actually love and enjoy the subject and put lots of effort into it.

I'm in AP Government now and let me tell you, having it during the Republican Primarys is absoloutley hilarious. My teacher's idea of a course plan is to start off with a broad topic and debate ourselves into the ground for a hour and a half. There are some radicals to the left and right and it gets pretty heated. The things that are said and the slanders that have been made are pretty funny lol.

Anyways, since there has been noticable interest in science and history I'd like to reccomend some books/shows that you might want to watch.

For my history buffs:
- King Leopolds Ghost - A great book detailing the genocide that whent on in the Congo during Euroupean Imperialism. A part of history I think has been forgotten due to Napoleonic History and WW I diminishing its prescence. If you're into Western Euroupean History from around the early to late 19th century, this book is for you.
- U.S. History For Dummies - Despite the title (lol) it's a great book. It shows United States History starting at the colonization of the first 13 colonies. This book is for dummies and intellectuals alike. Great book if you're, you guessed it, into pre and post colonial U.S. History.
- The History of the World in Six Glasses - A truely incredibly written book. It shows how six different beverages relate to World History starting from the Paleolithic Era all the way to WW II if I recall. This book shows World History in the eyes I've never seen it before and it's great for all history buffs no matter what your specific interests entitle.
- For your viewing pleasure, The History of the World In Two Hours on the History Channel is a great documentary. Albeit broad, it's a great documentary to watch.

For my science buffs:
- Physics: Anything written by Dr. Michio Kakau is a good read. He's hopefully in nomination for the Nobel Prize of Physics this year on his findings of String Theory. You can go on his website and get a list of his books, all heavily relating to physics. Just google Dr. Michio Kakau String Theory. I'd also like to mention the series on the science channel called Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman. It's an absoloutley fantastic and interesting view for anybody related the physics and chemistry. Highly reccomended.
- Chemistry: I never actually read a good book on chemistry before other than my honors english textbook before. Sorry :\

Other than that I never got into any other sciences. Also, to admins and mods, if this should be in a totally separate thread I'm sorry. I just didn't think this post in a new thread would leave a lot of room for discussion other than adding to the list. Sorry if I shouldn't post this here.

 

[Kybyrian]

Definitely the sciences. I don't like to say I enjoy math, but it's definitely one of my better subjects, and I like being able to grasp concepts and easily work them over. This paves the way for a pretty big opening of career fields out there, as math is heavily involved with just about any science you go into.

This is why I've always leaned towards Physics, and have even planned in majoring in Physics in college. Biology and Chemistry come at a close second, probably tied with each other, but I enjoy both thoroughly. Physics has always caught my eye with the theories and different things. I once saw a poster that illustrated, "If it's green and moves, it's Biology. If it stinks, it's Chemistry. If it doesn't work, it's Physics." I think that about sums it up. But hey, people become successful by doing things no one else wants to do.

I've never been big on fine arts. That includes music, writing, theater, all of it. I just hate fine arts. I did horrible in every fine arts class I took at school, barely passing with an A, and it made me never want to take another art course again. I'm not motivated in it, and it does not interest me in the slightest.

Like Nicole, I want to feel like I'm actually doing something as well as make money. Majoring in Physics, I don't think I'll really have much of a problem with making money, and the actually doing something thing is not necessarily something big, like finding a cure for cancer. I just want to feel like I'm actually helping forward things along in terms of our knowledge of the universe and everything we encounter every day.

 

[DisappearingMist]

When I was in elementary school, I was pretty passionate about writing, science, computers, and art. When I hit high school, I was not passionate about any of the subjects except for computers, until I took art my senior year. I wish I had taken more art classes in high school....

In college, I was passionate about the explosion of knowledge I received in my computer classes. I also really enjoyed the art and photography classes I took. My degree was in business, and I enjoyed the topic and was good at it, but I didn't necessarily thrive on it.