• Question: Hey , I was wondering when you where 14 did u ever see yourself in the position you are in now

    Asked by anon-257413 to Jordan on 9 Jul 2020.
    • Photo: Jordan McElwee

      Jordan McElwee answered on 9 Jul 2020:

      Absolutely not. Towards the end of high school I wasn’t trying particularly hard and my high school wasn’t particularly good at pushing students to do well. I also had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school! Even if I wanted to go to university, I didn’t know if I would be able to get in, so I never imagined at 14 that I’d be doing a PhD 10 years later.

      But this is okay! It can take a little while to find something you’re interested in and willing to put the work into (I wasn’t very good at physics in high school). Once you do, you’ll be amazed at the difference in motivation.

Comments

  • Photo: John

    John commented on :

    That is certainly a question worth thinking about. At about 14 my plan was RAF jet pilot> astronaut> Briton in space > 1st person to visit Jupiter. The backup plan was chemistry teacher because I was good at chemistry. My eyes/reflexes were not good enough for the RAF so I stuck with chemistry, still hoping to be a science astronaut on the space shuttle. That didn’t work out (see my answer to the did you ever want to be an astronaut question) but in trying to get the skills to be an astronaut I worked on jet planes, satellites and telescopes. So I finished up close to my 14 year old dreams, but not quite in the way I expected. Still, if you jump for the stars you will most likely get over the garden fence into something interesting. So I always encourage young people to follow their dream but be ready to swerve a bit if things change and so your original plans don’t work out. I can’t be the first Briton in Space now, but the Jupiter slot is still open 😉