Senior year in college I had to take a lot of physics classes to finish the major. Most people who major in physics know their major when they start college. It’s not a casual major. It has a lot of requirements and you have to take many in order since most depend on earlier ones so you don’t have much freedom. I chose in the second semester of my junior year, so my courses were fixed.

Meanwhile, I took a math class, Modern Algebra, that I loved. I wish I could explain it casually. The best I can say is that it studied symmetry and that we humans find symmetry aesthetically pleasing, so the class led me to find more beauty in the world and I loved it. It was also one of my first classes about proofs, not just calculations. It was a full-year course.

Second semester senior year I wanted to keep taking algebra. For the major I had to take Digital Lab. They overlapped by about fifteen minutes, like if algebra ended at 2:30pm, lab started at 2:15pm. Plus the buildings were a five-minute walk from each other. I forget the exact timing.

Anyway, I got special permission to take two classes that overlapped. When algebra ended, I ran to lab.

For most of the semester I could follow lab. By the end, when we started building a calculator and computer from circuits, I got lost. A close friend and ultimate teammate was taking the same class and we were in the same group, so he covered for me and I got the same grade as the group. Actually, tomorrow I’ll share how I caught back up in the class.

Anyway, I’m not writing this with shame or pride, just that I took two classes that overlapped in time. I loved both subjects that much.

• ← Staples aren’t
• I still took a class after graduation →