15 years ago

15 years ago in this same month I was completely focused in studying for the PAA/PCE, which was like the SAT exam in the US. It had two main subjects in the PAA part: maths and Spanish, and several subjects in the PCE part: maths, physics, chemistry, biology, history, etc. I studied like crazy for the maths part using an old physics book that included a lot of math problems.

I knew I had a chance for getting a top score at this test, I just had to focus and avoid making stupid mistakes. But I failed. I said that -1 had 1 square root: i and failed to count -i, so I had one of the 90 or so questions wrong. There were 2 or 3 guys who tied in the first place in maths and I was not one of them.

As a consolation price, I got the best score in physics, answering all 50 questions or so without errors. It was a consequence of studying maths with a physics book.

In the interview clipped here, I say that I work at the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) with children -- at that time I thought you could be a Christian-Atheist, but that's a long story :-). I also say that the PAA/PCE favors rich students as they are able to pay for lessons outside the high school to prepare themselves better.

I also say that I want to study to become an Engineer (I did) and I say --and I did not remember this-- that I would like to work independently as an entrepreneur.

In retrospective, these 15 years make sense. I did not want to study more physics, and I am OK with that. I wanted to become an Engineer, and I did. I also wanted to become an entrepreneur, and I also did, but at some point I had to leave that to focus on finishing my PhD. Academia was not in my plans 15 years ago, it appeared later on, and that's fine too. With 16 years, you cannot predict so well your future :-)

(Thanks to Cristian O. for sending me this newspaper clip!)