 When I first joined STEM, I was mainly just looking for a change. I had just finished Math 10, which took way too long for not enough content and I was so bored out of my mind. So when the honors course for Math 11 didn't run, I decided I would sign up for STEM. What I remember the most about the first few weeks of STEM was just totally feeling so incompetent. I felt like I was a pretty good student. I had gone through lots of math courses. I was a year ahead in science, so I came into STEM and I thought it would be fine. I realized really quickly that everybody in the program knew way more than me and we were learning subject material that I've never heard of before and we were expected to do these projects where I didn't even know where to start. One of my most vivid memories from back then is doing our first group test, which was on the tracking solar panel with Dexter and Sam. And luckily, they had both already done a year of STEM, so they kind of knew what they were doing. And they gave me a couple problems to do for the group test. And I remember trying to calculate one of them. I think it was how many joules of energy come out of the sun every day. And I worked on it for so long and I remember getting to the end of that question and feeling so good about myself and like I had finally done something in STEM. And it's so funny to look back on that now because I'm sure if I did that now, I would be able to do that in like five minutes, not like the 20 that I took back then. I also remember that the first time I made a spreadsheet was during our rockets project. And we were supposed to make a spreadsheet about how different parameters of the launching mechanism and things like air drag affect the speed and height that our rocket goes. That kind of marked a really big change in the way that I thought about math because all of a sudden it wasn't just getting a problem and then you take out your notebook and you solve it and you got the answer. It was using tools like Excel and like computers and stuff like that to do math that was actually useful to our project. And I remember I realized that you can actually use it like in the moment and get such cool graphs and data off of that. I think the things that I've learned in physics and math over the last few years is a lot more to do with mindset than actual content. I could probably say that somebody that went through a regular physics 11 and 12 or a math 11 and 12 learned more calculations or formulas than I did. But I can say that I used calculus to determine the efficiency of a tracking solar panel array or that I tracked the projectile motion of a trebuchet that I made or that I made an NMR using the electromagnetism principles that you learn in a normal physics class. And I also find that I'm just noticing physics and math in the real world so much more than I used to. I'll find when I'm walking past a park or something and I see kids throwing balls to each other, I'll just start thinking about the projectile motion that's telling that ball how to move. I just always want to whip out a spreadsheet and make data of the things that I see around. And I think just that mindset of wanting to analyze everything that you see around you is so different than how I thought when I was in regular math and physics. I've started thinking about math and physics as just the language of our universe. It's like you learn all of these formulas, you learn all of these different concepts, but you don't actually apply them when you can and you don't see them when they're around you. So it's like learning a language and learning all these different vocabulary words, but you can't actually have a conversation with somebody. You're not actually fluent. I've gone from being interested in math and physics to becoming fluent in math and physics. I think with calculus as well this year, I realized that I had missed all of this stuff that people have been doing for the last two years with math. And I caught up in like 10 minutes and I think all of us that did calculus just realized how important it was for us to be able to have proficiency and the really basic concepts of math and really to understand why math is the way it is and how we can use it. I think probably my favorite math moment of the whole year was when we were doing our last practice exam right before the real calculus exam. And I did the no calculator written section and I finished with two minutes to spare and I got a perfect score on it when I marked it. And I just had this moment of like, oh my god, we actually did this. I also think it wasn't until really this year that I started taking things into my own hands, things such as the self-study and calculus, but also with the girls program that Rainie and I started, I was so shocked by how easily the teacher at Air Lord just handed her class over to us and it really made me realize that people are ready for you to start things and they're ready for you to create your own opportunities. And I think we get so stuck in this regimen of this is what school looks like and we forget that there's so many opportunities that you can take if you're the one to create them first. I almost think that that's the biggest way that the STEM program has changed me is just showing me the bigger picture. I feel like this year with my capstone as well, like I really tried to use it as an opportunity to network and to try out things in the professional field and just learn as much as I possibly can instead of being so focused on just getting the product out that I wanted. I think the thing that I've learned most about myself in the last two years as well is that I'm really drawn to creating and discovering things. I think working on these projects and working in groups and all that has really showed me that that's the form that I want to work in when I'm older and I think that's really valuable for me to know as a learner and as a person going into university.