As can be seen from almost all of the posts on this website, I dedicate almost all of my free time and interests to writing and sharing my love of literature. However, 2 years of chemistry in a row has taught me a variety of complementary skills that are necessary to be a logical, organized person.
Where I Was Coming From
Students who are looking to narrow down their passion to one significant profession can sometimes forget that not everything revolves around their center of interest. I can't expect to take seven classes that are all based on writing and the humanities, for it would get stale at some point. Consequently, as I moved along my Sophomore year, I stayed alert for whatever subject might catch my eye. In eighth grade, introductory units to chemistry had always been my least favorite. In tenth grade, however, Chemistry Honors exposed me to a scientific domain that had a lot more to offer than what I first expected.
The class was fast-paced, filled with comprehension quizzes and exploratory labs that stressed real-world applications. Within chemical studies, we touched on biochemistry and calculations that applied to physics as well. It suddenly felt as if all of the sciences were coming together and making sense, and by the end of the year, I knew that I would want to explore the subject in even more depth.
After Sophomore year, where chemistry was mandatory, our school gave us the option to choose between a variety of sciences. Despite the tempting classes available, continuing the effort that I had put into my first year with chemistry and bringing my studies a step further seemed like the most logical option to me.
AP Chemistry - Sparking New Change
Without thinking twice, I can certainly say that out of all of my academic classes, I spent the most amount of time studying for AP Chemistry. With major unit tests every two weeks and quizzes every day, I can confirm that 6-7 hours of the week were spent on chemistry, especially when nearing an exam. My second test of the year landed at a C+, the lowest grade I had ever received in a core subject during my time in high school. But I couldn't have studied for any longer— so I decided to change the way I was approaching my preparation.
Without a doubt, it was important to complete endless amounts of practice problems to be able to repeat them on a test. However, what I had been missing was comprehension, how the labs that we had done in class related to the numbers and letters in the long strings of equations.
In science, as soon as you understand how what you are doing relates to another unit, subject, or phenomenon that you witness in your everyday life, everything seems to make sense all of a sudden. It can be easy to think that your class is divided into multiple, incongruous units without realizing that they all lead to one another and build off skills that have already been learned. It took me a while to do this in chemistry, but once I did, I powered through the rest of the year and recovered my comprehension with ease.
How AP Chemistry Helps my Writing
It might seem like a stretch, but there are certain elements of the discipline that I learned through chemistry that I use in my writing (seriously— I'm not just trying to draw this connection for no reason). First, as I briefly touched on above, is how the symbols that are written on the paper connect to general understanding.
Just as how: 6CO2 + 6H2O --> C6H12O6 + 6O2 actually represents the process of photosynthesis, the words that you write need to be more than just symbols. They need to evoke a sense of mutual understanding with the reader and inspire a change in emotion or thought. As I said in my "Passions and Interests" post, a writer needs to be able to articulate their ideas first before inspiring change within their readers. In chemistry, the process is similar. Whether it is drawing a Lewis-dot diagram, the lines of a spectrometer, or the molar ratio of the contents of a reaction, the symbols that are being drawn need to be presented in a way that connects to the real world and the reader's comprehension.
Finally, chemistry has also taught to me to solve a problem in multiple ways. Throughout the course of the year, we have learned how to tackle an equation in so many ways... each of them interconnected but distinct in the path which you must take to arrive at the final answer. This final skill is one that I have not only applied to writing, but to all of the other subjects that I am interested in, because it is critical in any profession that seeks to tackle challenging, conceptual problems that addresses a public.
On top of all of this, I was able to work with the same chemistry professor for two years in a row. Since he knew my strengths and skills at the end of my Sophomore year, he was able to work with me throughout my Junior year to fill the holes which I left off with.
Chemistry feels like it has been with me throughout my entire time in high school. It has composed a significant part of time and energy, and I don't regret it a single bit, because of all of the general lessons and strengths that it has given me beyond just the scientific realm.
11/24/19