Talking about expectations and experiences is never simple. Before I speak about what I expect from Physics, I need to look at everything it has already given me.

Physics has given me a new way of seeing the world. It taught me to observe details, to question what seems obvious, and to search for causes rather than simply accept consequences. More than formulas and theories, Physics has offered me a different way to position myself in everyday life, to act with more strategy, discipline, and awareness to achieve my goals.


Denver Colorado Skyline

And because of it, I have had experiences I never imagined: traveling to another country, visiting new states, and connecting with different people and realities. For it, I gave up certain things, made difficult choices, and persisted even when the outcome was not the best possible. Still, every effort was worth it. In the end, what remains is not only the result, but the transformation. It may sound like a line from a motivational book, but it is exactly what I believe: Physics taught me to fight for what I want.

It taught me not to believe when someone tries to put me down, because the one who makes things happen is you. It taught me that it does not matter how many times you fall, but how many times you rise again with the determination to continue. In other words, it gave me a new way of seeing life. 

It also taught me how to deal with frustration. In experimental physics, I learned that not everything goes as planned, and almost nothing works on the first attempt. Experiments fail, results differ, and hypotheses need to be revised - a process that requires patience, humility, and persistence. In theoretical physics, I learned that nothing is too complicated to understand if you are truly willing to learn. What seems impossible gradually becomes clear when you dedicate time, focus, and effort.

Physics is demanding, indeed. It requires discipline, consistency, logical reasoning, and emotional resilience. It pushes you out of your comfort zone, forces you to face problems that seem unsolvable, and makes you accept that mistakes are part of the process. It tests your patience when a calculation does not work out, when a piece of code does not run, when an experiment fails yet again. But it is precisely in this difficulty that its greatness lies. At the same time that it challenges you, it shapes you; at the same time that it demands, it teaches.


Pleiades star cluster

That is why I am willing to spend hours solving a seemingly simple computational problem, redoing a calculation until I understand every detail, and repeating an experimental procedure as many times as necessary. I am willing to keep expanding my knowledge, to learn what it still has to offer, and to defend it with everything I know. I am willing to be patient when results do not appear, to persist when exhaustion comes, and to continue investigating even when the answer feels far away.

In the end, Physics did not only teach me about the universe. It taught me about myself, about my limits, my strength, and my ability to keep going. And that is why, more than a field of study, it has become part of who I am.


Hugo Antonio Domingos Correia
Undergraduate student in Materials Physics at the University of Pernambuco (UPE). He was a scientific initiation scholarship holder funded by FACEPE, working on research in the area of magnetic materials. Currently, he develops research in magnetic domain wall dynamics, focusing on the improvement of memory devices and switching technologies based on ferromagnetic materials. Additionally, he collaborates with the Department of Nano at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE).