From a Welfare Household to a PhD from the University of Tokyo ⑤

People from another world

Many of the people I met after entering the University of Tokyo seemed like they were from another world.
The level of privilege they enjoyed was, to me, so high that I could hardly believe we were born and raised in the same country.

But unfortunately, they were not as talented as I had imagined.
This fact disappointed me greatly and made me angry.
Studying with such students was truly a terrible experience.

When I was in high school, I didn't tell my classmates about my situation.
Even though I was a high school student myself, I thought there was no point in talking about such things to people who were still just high school students.

On the other hand, I believed that once you turn 18, you are an adult, so everyone should be interested in the problems faced by others and society.
But it seems I was the only one who thought that way.

I had expected people at the University of Tokyo to have a bit more ambition, but in the end, I only met people who seemed to think only of themselves.
My student life with people like this was, as expected, a terrible experience.

Towards the major selection process

To advance to the Department of Mathematics through the major selection process (a system for choosing a specialized faculty from the third year), I had to take both humanities and science compulsory courses simultaneously.
The difficulty level of the humanities classes, including exams, was not much, but they still took up a considerable amount of time.
It was also difficult to maintain the grades required for tuition waivers and scholarships.

The science classes were a problem, including their difficulty level.
I had managed to finish the high school science curriculum in mathematics while I was still in high school, so I could handle the math classes.
However, I had hardly studied physics or chemistry, so I was forced to struggle quite a bit.

There were usually a few students in the compulsory science classes who had experience with the Science Olympiad.
Those students were praised, but I was looked down upon.
(Things like, "There's no way a humanities student can do math!")

I wanted to participate in the Math Olympiad too.
However, the reference books for that were incomparably more expensive than entrance exam prep books, and I couldn't afford them.
Even if I had pushed myself to buy them, I didn't have the time to study them in the first place.

In the end, I think only a small fraction of those who were being praised at the time were able to remain in academia.
In other words, they weren't that great.
But at the time, the apparent "gap" between those people and myself was a source of tremendous stress.

I was able to endure that kind of suffering.
I think this is my only talent.

As a result, I was able to successfully advance from the humanities to the Department of Mathematics.
I was the first to achieve this.
Although it had been possible under the system for a long time, it seems it was actually considered impossible.

By this time, I already knew well that things people said were impossible were actually quite possible.

Next article

Previous article