Many years ago, I used to drive Lu to school every morning. I really enjoyed these drives because we had one on one time. She was in second grade at the time and studying things that second graders study. Now Lu is very bright, and excels in topics that she likes. One such topic is the life sciences especially when pertaining to animals; go figure. That is the only area of science that I don't like. I mean, I actually hate it. Not because I don't think it is important or the science isn't interesting. The honest truth is because there is too much memorization in the life sciences. I am not a physicist because I can remember things (If you know me you know memorization and spelling are my worst intellectual attributes. Hell, I had to look up intellectual while typing this. We won't get into my non-intellectual shortcomings). I am a physicist because I can figure things out starting from basic principles. Therefore, I don't memorize many things. As we get in the car, Lu starts talking about spiders. Now she loved this topic and is going on and on about them. She finally asks me "What do spiders eat?". I reply, "They eat what they catch in their web." You can never answer just one question and be done when it comes to a second grader. The next question "How do they eat them?". "I guess they just swallow them", I replied. "Do they throw them back up and then eat them like some other animals?", was the third question on a topic I know nothing about. I finally give in and reply "I am not sure how they eat them to be honest". Now the fourth question was the show stopper. Lu followed up with "I thought you were a scientist?". I thought to myself "Well sir!", she has thrown down the gauntlet now. I quickly answered "I am, but I didn't study the eating habits of spiders". "What did you study?", she countered with a feel of "why the hell not" in her tone. I said physics. Her follow-up question "What is that?". I gave up and replied "nothing important Darling, nothing important".
It was that day that I realized that nothing in your career matters to a second grader. You can win every award possible and be the most successful in your field, but if you don't know the eating habits of spiders, you are just some joker on the street wasting his life doing unimportant work. My ego took a slight hit that day. But now that she is in 6th grade and needs help in Math, I want to scream "How do you like me now?". See God knows that SuperMom is the glue that holds this house and family together, but it is only the dumb physicist that can tackle 6th grade Math for Lu. One day I will learn about those tricky spiders.
It was that day that I realized that nothing in your career matters to a second grader. You can win every award possible and be the most successful in your field, but if you don't know the eating habits of spiders, you are just some joker on the street wasting his life doing unimportant work. My ego took a slight hit that day. But now that she is in 6th grade and needs help in Math, I want to scream "How do you like me now?". See God knows that SuperMom is the glue that holds this house and family together, but it is only the dumb physicist that can tackle 6th grade Math for Lu. One day I will learn about those tricky spiders.