Science Is Fun; Work Harder

I want to be an astronaut;
it’s just so darn hard

all the Sputnik-like urgency,
the math-science death march

through a blizzard of calculus,
physics and chemistry,

trying to memorize equations
when it’s all about application.

The big question is how to keep
the momentum from dissipating,

hang on to the oasis of aspirations
in the dry and hard-to-get-through,

harvest the kinetic energy of dreams,
break the complex attrition of hope.

———-

Found poem from the New York Times article, “Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard).”