Bit 'o Backstory

Since I'm going to Mudd, there's probably a lot more people that will see these and might want to know a little about me. My first post already got 2 views other than myself, so I'm making two posts in one night so that any new people can understand better who I am.

My hometown is Waterford, California, which is heavily based on agriculture. Unless you're one of the people who own the farms, most people here aren't doing too well. According to Data USA, we have a poverty rate of 25%, and most of the people I know (and all of my close friends), work in the agriculture business either in the fields or by selling the produce.

Up until high school I was exactly what you would think of if you imagine a "redneck." I'm talkin' fishing, catching crawdads, gettin' dirty outside, hanging out with my cousin, ping pong, adventures, just the whole works. Education was the absolute LAST thing on my mind.

Then, I went to Waterford High School, which is an agricultural school in my town, and I got a job picking in the walnut fields. Lemme tell ya, that opened my eyes BIG TIME. I didn't wanna end up like that, so I taught myself tons of math and science to the point of fanaticism. I made rockets with my welder friends and derived new rocketry equations, I performed the craziest experiments ever like using 18M Sulfuric Acid to make a car battery from scratch, and I even got into a summer Astrophysics program.

All the while, I kept looking forward to the day when I could do physics research with people who also loved science (Waterford didn't have a physics teacher 😭 , so for the time I could only imagine). But, now that I'm going to Mudd, it was all worth it! I can barely wait to do research with professors!!!!! I'm gonna learn sooooooo much!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!