John Sturgis: The Relatable Genius
Everyone has a person that seems like a genius in their life. There are also two whole TV shows based around the same kid genius. The TV shows Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory are all about kid genius Sheldon Cooper. Sheldon is a quirky and smart perfectionist that always gets his way no matter what. Even though Sheldon steals the show most of the time, there is more than one genius in both shows. Leonard, Bernadette, Howard, Dr. Linkladder, Paige, and Raj all are very smart people who are also on the cast. But the one overlooked genius, specifically on Young Sheldon, is John Sturgis.
Dr. Sturgis was Sheldon’s college professor at East Texas Tech and taught Sheldon’s Quantum Chromodynamics class. Even though he is a very smart man, he is also an extremely relatable character. Out of all of the characters on Young Sheldon John Sturgis was probably the most relatable character despite his oddball personality. There are many things that he did in numerous episodes that made him relatable to almost anyone who watches the show.
“A Swedish Science Thing And An Equation For Toast”
In this episode, Dr. Sturgis starts to lose his grip on what is real and what is fake. His coworker Dr. Linkladder mentions to Connie that he has struggled with his grip on reality for quite a while when John has an incident at the University that he works at. Later that day Connie finds John on the roof of his apartment building playing with neutrinos and doing Tai-Chi. John voices that many great scientists don’t get recognition for what they have done and that he feels like his research has amounted to nothing. Therefore, since he has emersed his whole life in science, his life has amounted to nothing. He later is then booked into a mental hospital in order to get a grip on reality once Connie comforts him. Everyone at one point in their life will feel like they aren’t good enough or not satisfied with what they are doing. There is nothing wrong with that, as John has taught us, you simply must move past what is bothering you and find ways to ground yourself.
“A Black Hole”
The black hole episode is, to me, the most relatable. In this episode, John gets fired from his job working on a supercollider in Waxahachie, Texas. John, even though he was a great contribution to the project, got fired for causing a stir in the media. He said that there was a probability for a black hole to be created if there was an error using the supercollider during a TV interview. People obviously are not happy with this statement and they fired him, therefore, John came back to Medford to meet with Sheldon and Connie. John then decides to start working at the local grocery store in Medford as his new job. Mary, Sheldon’s mother, invites Dr. Stugis to dinner after seeing him working at the grocery store. Dr. Sturgis, Connie, and the Cooper family all talk about science and what would happen if a black hole were to form because of the supercollider.
There are many times throughout the episode where John fantasizes about Connie, and what might happen if he hadn’t broken things off with her. He then walks her home later that night and realizes that he still loves Connie. Connie has moved on from John and has a new romantic partner, and John is trying to convince himself that he is over her as well, even though he knows that he still has feelings for Connie. In the episode, you can see that he clearly is struggling with his emotions and isn’t doing much about it. He is keeping his feelings for Connie a secret solemnly just because he doesn’t want to disturb her happiness. This is something that I am guilty of and that a lot of other people might be guilty of. There is also the fact that a lot of people simply fight with their emotions and often end up losing that fight one way or another.
“A Boyfriend’s Ex-Wife And A Good Luck Headrub”
In this third episode, John and Connie both make encounters with June, Connie’s new boyfriend’s ex-wife. The only friends that John really has at this point in time are Sheldon and Connie, even though Connie is his ex. June and Connie end up going to a bar and happen to find John in the bar. John then starts talking and drinking with the two ladies and making jokes with the whole bar. The viewer then starts to realize that John is willing to do anything in order to fit in. For example, the good luck head rub. People in the bar will rub John’s half bald head if they need a sports team to win. John also humiliates himself by trying to talk about sports and talk about life in general. John just wanted to fit in since he felt like he sort of fit in somewhere for once. All he wanted was to feel like he belonged somewhere. Then later in the episode he asked June if she felt like they had a connection romantically. He then got rejected by June in the nicest way possible. In the end he just wants to fit in and oftentimes that’s what most people want. People just want to fit in and feel like they are loved.
In conclusion, people can relate a lot to John Sturgis, more so than any other character throughout Young Sheldon. He has mental health problems that are out of his control, he is a hopeless romantic throughout parts of the show, he only has one true friend that is his age, and just wants to feel normal and fit in with the people around him. Most importantly, he shows people that even if they don’t feel the best with themselves, they can still come back to being alright.
