<p>First semester Aerospace engineering student at University of Maryland. I'm having a tough time in Calc 2. I have a B in the class but when doing the homework I get frustrated beyond belief. I always understand the problems conceptually, but I am not good at crunching numbers/algebra. I do not enjoy doing calculus. I am also in Chemistry and I absolutely loathe everything about that class. I'm currently barely scraping by with a C. At this point I am really questioning my desire to become an engineer. I currently am not enjoying school and I don't know if I'd enjoy working as an engineer either.</p>
<p>Advice?</p>
<p>I’m assuming you’re a freshman? First semester and you’re already thinking of giving up? You will never get anywhere in life, if you encounter something hard at first, and give up immediately. Maybe you’re getting used to the shock of attending a college. Everything is on a whole different level. Many people do poorly at first, but then things start to get better as time progresses. At least give it another semester, and if you’re still doing bad, then change majors if needed.</p>
<p>It’s not the difficulty so much as the fact that I don’t enjoy my classes and find them extremely frustrating. I can’t see myself being happy as an engineer if I’m going to be crunching numbers all the time, etc</p>
<p>Lower level courses in anything is always boring. It’s when you start taking upper level courses that things start to become more interesting.</p>
<p>There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.</p>
<p>The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.</p>
<p>The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.</p>
<p>The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life.</p>
<p>He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.</p>
<p>If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, and the fulfillment of your fall.</p>