Onward!

“Man is the joy of man.” — Havamal

Surely you’re joking, DMO!

As thanks for my extra participation in his classes, DMO has given me the complete trilogy of The Feynman Lectures on Physics, which is really awesome. I, too, thank him for all that he has taught me. He thanked me for laughing at his jokes, but they really are just funny, so there was no need to thank me for laughing.

When I visited Caltech last month, I sent a picture of the Feynman Lecture Hall to DMO since I knew he would be interested, and he was even more amazed than I was, asking, “How did it feel to be in the same room that Richard Feynman was in?”

I can see why DMO is such a big fan. Feynman is not only one of the greats of physics, but also of teaching, up there with Confucius and others. DMO borrows a distinct pacing and intonation from Feynman, which sort of makes sense because Long Island is close to Queens. DMO also enjoys creating visuals for clarity, even for non-science things like literature.

So we beat on, boats against the current…

For example, he drew diverging lines with respect to time to show the way that Gatsby’s life increasingly differs from the potential life he missed. Gatsby’s actions are guided in an attempt to recreate that ever more distant, nostalgic life.

I’m glad that I was able to experience my teacher’s classes in this lifetime because it was definitely some of the most fun I’ve had in periods of times which are usually considered a chore.

Ahoy!

Yesterday, math team voted for next year’s captains. To me, leadership positions is really one of the worst aspects of high school clubs. Everyone wants to get into a good college, so everyone has to be president of a club. But there is a limited supply of positions!

Most clubs resort to making fake positions like secretary, treasurer, or social media manager. If that is the way that math team ends up, I’m fine with it as long as those people actually come to meetings. However, those people know that what they have is not real and their thirst will remain unquenched.

I think that the captains chosen are very capable and that they will lead the team well. Almost the entire team is made up of sophomores except for one junior, and many of the sophomores are on about the same level, so almost everyone ran for captain. Of course, not everyone can have a leadership position because then there would be no point.

However, this means some people will lose out and that the team might break apart. Theoretically, coming to math team for the enjoyment of math is a nice idea. In practice, that’s only half of the story; people want true recognition.

Rotating

The solution of giving everyone a position doesn’t work, but what else can be done?

Perhaps captains can rotate on a set schedule, like every 1/3 or 1/2 of the school year. Or, they can be reelected once a semester or so. This way, more people can have the experience of leading the club while not diluting the satisfaction of knowing that they earned a position of true substance.

Or, the team can reorganize into smaller squads of four people and then each of those people is squad leader/coach responsible for teaching the group concepts and problems during the meetings. Then, there is a main captain who also leads a squad in addition to the entire club. Then, the squad coaches do an intragroup rotation. Finally, on their college apps, they can write that they were a squad leader and made it to regionals or whatever.

Readers, feel free to implement my idea in different clubs but make sure to credit me appropriately by prepending “Tom” to the name of your club.

• E.g., Tom Crochet Club, Tom Fight Club, Tom Warden’s Club, Tom Polo Club, Tom Bear Cub, and, last but not least, Tom In Da Club.

Vinland Saga

is one of the best pieces of media I have ever enjoyed. I couldnt’ wait until the end of the anime’s second season so I read the entire manga in two days. I highly recommend it as a more mature action-based manga/anime.

One of the biggest problems of the first season is that the main character is overly simplistic and annoying. However, by the end of the first season and the beginning of the second, there are significant developments in the character.

The series is similar in theme to Vagabond, but the way they present the message is very different. Vagabond blends storytelling and adventuring with the theme very well but in a less classy way than Vinland. Also, there is more violence in Vagabond.

… borne back ceaselessly into the past.

At these bittersweet interludes of life, everything I observe tends to remind me of something similar from the past. Simple acts like putting on sunscreen or scraping my knee bring me back many years to moments that I would normally never think about. It’s interesting that during times of change, the human mind searches within for solutions in addition to finding details in the environment.

I may only return to the campus a handful of times in the future to greet my old (current) teachers, and I will not recognize anyone, but I think that’s ok. Places and faces are meant to change and fade eventually.

However, it’s time to continue onward with my internship and college and whatever comes after. The only way is forward, and it’s just so exciting.

To my great classmates, teachers, and students,

Thank you.