Personal Essay Sample on STEM
Up to my sophomore year of high school, I had no particular attraction to STEM despite doing well in math and science classes. I was pressured to take AP Physics (much to my disappointment at the time), and was not expecting the shocking moment when my whole mindset shifted. In that year, I began to realize the practicality and obvious nature of the world around me. I began to see everyday life in numbers, equations, and scientific phenomena.
As extreme it may seem to claim a total change in world perspective, I think that extremity is what caused me to become so passionate about STEM, particularly engineering. I found myself asking the question, “If everything could possibly exist and be done, why have we not done it yet?”, not yet realizing that is the exact question every engineer asks themselves every day. That same year, I was introduced to what most nickname ‘rocket science’, and for the first time in a very long time I felt extremely driven to make a permanent and physical difference in the world. I began to study bottle rockets and became more invested in the question of colonizing Mars, eventually culminating into my decision to study Aerospace Engineering.
In my introduction to engineering and the process of building simple bottle rockets, the question I previously asked seemed to have a very clear answer. Watching my project slam into pavement on countless occasions made me fear failure to the point of doubting the very idea of making it off the planet, let alone to Mars. I began to understand why many avoided STEM – because it required a strength and dedication that at times seemed impossible.
Throughout the years, my most significant experiences in STEM have been the ones that tested my patience and made me question the very purpose that drives me to continue. To me, it makes success that much more fulfilling. I am currently pursuing the question of Earth’s sustainability (in the short term and long term) and I am hoping to make interplanetary travel a very achievable goal in the near future. I am driven by the idea that efforts to improve the range and efficiency of human space travel will not only benefit us, but also the generations that will follow us, essentially allowing us (the human race) to live a longer and happier life. Even among my fellow engineers, this seems like a lofty goal.
However, my experiences with STEM have driven me to try the impossible and make it very possible, no matter the failure I face in the process and the strength I must build to realize my goals. I hope that my large leaps will at the very least yield small steps towards improving the world in the present and in the future.
