complexPHILOSOPHY brings up an interesting point. In my work as an astronomy instructor, I have come across countless people who claim to have a deep fascination for all things physical. These people claim to be passionate about string theory, claim to be utterly awe-struck by quantum mechanics, and so on. When you really begin talking to many of these people, you unfortunately begin to realize their exposure is almost wholly from science popularizations ("A Brief History of Time," etc.), and they have essentially no idea at all what these theories are really made of, or what it means to actually study them.
These people often literally think that physics students sit around in lounge chairs, contemplating white holes and cosmic strings and time travel all day long. Their impression of what it means to study physics is as much a caricature as a child playing doctor.
As a result, it makes scientists a little incredulous when they hear about some school kid who's "extremely interested" in quantum mechanics and string theory. The unfortunate truth is that few school kids have any idea at all what it really means to study these theories, and their interest in studying physics may be seriously misguided. You never really hear any school kids raving about how they can't wait to study statistical mechanics -- a class that's much more representative of what undergraduate physics students "really do."
- Warren