Early on in the COVID pandemic, I had some extra time to spend at home. I decided to work my way through a physics lecture series I found on YouTube.
I decided to start working my way through these lessons from Jeff Hanson. I started with the Statics course, and then I moved on to the solids and dynamics courses.
Why Did I Do This?
I think engineering is the coolest. My mom’s boyfriend is an engineer and I was fascinated with how he could fix almost anything in his house. Like many other people did during the pandemic, I was seriously considering a career change to engineering. I actually applied for a couple engineering schools and got in to one of them. I thought I would brush up on my physics and math by running through Jeff Hanson’s courses on YouTube.
What Did I Learn?
Well, obviously I learned a lot about engineering concepts. But what I was surprised by is how easy I found it to learn from this format. I love being in a classroom setting, but this gave me access to the same information at any hour of the day, and allowed me to work at my own pace.
Some people who want to learn these subjects assume that the only way to find this information is to spend thousands of dollars on college courses, hundreds of dollars on text books and hours in a classroom. People know that they can learn about social media marketing or fitness on YouTube, but I think the part that gets overlooked is the legitimate, valuable information you can find on YouTube on ANY SUBJECT.
Would I Still Become an Engineer?
After completing these courses, I think I scratched the itch that I had. I still love learning new math and science concepts but I’m not interested in working as an engineer. I love applying the concepts I learn, but I don’t think the work that engineers do would stimulate me in the same way.
Biggest Takeaway
This little foray into a new subject really showed me one thing. Being a lifelong learner is a personal choice that you have to make. If you want to perpetually improve and expand your knowledge, you have to make the choice to take action.
If you’ve always wanted to learn about something, but never had the chance to take an actual class — just look for something on YouTube or elsewhere online. The resources are available for you to learn whatever you want: GO FIND THEM!