Teaching teenagers saved my physics

I left a PhD program convinced I had failed at science. A classroom of fifteen-year-olds gave it back to me, slower and better.

The path, in milestones.

1. 2020

   Walked away from the lab

   My advisor was kind when I quit. The shame was mine. I told friends I was 'taking a break' for almost a year.

   Lesson: Quitting a path is not the same as quitting the field.
2. 2021

   First class, first blank stare

   Thirty kids. I opened with angular momentum because I loved it. They looked at me like I'd spoken Latin. By March I was teaching with a skateboard.

   Lesson: If they don't get it, the failure is in the explanation, not in them.
3. 2023

   A student emailed me about her university choice

   She had picked physics. She wrote: 'You made it feel like a thing a person could do.' I printed the email and kept it in my desk.

   Lesson: Permission is a real gift to give a young person.