“When I think about STEM, my first experience thinking scientifically is what I think probably stands out the most. I must have been five or six years old when I was traveling with my mom on the train. I live in New York so there's this massive train and tunnel system called the subway, which can take you anywhere in the city. When I went with her on the subway, I would always, I remember, sit near the windows because I loved watching the buildings rush by and, you know, the streaks of lights just dashing along the dark tunnels whenever the subway trains went underground.

On this particular day, though, I had an interesting idea. The train I was sitting in was moving really, really fast, like faster than most cars that you'd see on the road. So I thought to myself, you know, if I jumped as high as I could, how far down the train cabin would I move? Your average six year old really doesn't usually, usually doesn't know about inertia, let alone like what physics means. So you can imagine my disappointment when I jumped and landed a second later exactly where I started. I remember even jumping a few more times to make sure that my eyes weren't, like, deceiving me. And yeah, every time I was landing in the same spot.

Um, so, today I'm a college student studying chemistry. You know, sometimes I get, like, really bogged down with my work and studies and I forget why I even decided to major in STEM in the first place. But when I look back on, on this memory, I look back on it fondly, because really, it was like the first time I took an interest in science. For me, science isn't just something that you do in school or study in a laboratory. It's something that you can have fun with and think about every day. We now know that inertia exists, that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Whenever I think about it, though, it's kind of crazy that someone just like me had the same thought 300 years ago that led to Newton's three laws of motion. And that's about it. See you.”