Personal Narrative: Chemistry

“What we have is a sample of aniline dissolved in water to produce 25 mL of a .1 M solution. The pH of the solution is 8.82. We need to find the equilibrium constant of this reaction”

The vast majority of the class was bored senseless, some even sleeping during the lecture. I’ll admit, even I became legitimately disinterested in class from time to time and found it difficult to focus on the lecture. But for the most part, I listened intently and focused on understanding the new topics at hand. The grand ideas of chemistry intrigued me, and everyday I seeked to improve my understanding of it.

Today, however, was not one of those days. I struggled to concentrate on the lecture and found myself getting distracted easily. Suddenly the bell rang and I snapped my head up, realizing I had been day-dreaming through the latter part of the class. I scanned the board, not having the slightest understanding of the topics scrawled upon it. In a slight panic, I rushed to my

I went home that evening and watched a video of a retired chemistry professor intelligibly explaining how to calculate an equilibrium constant. I was fascinated with how easily and concisely he explained intricate topics that took my teacher multiple hours of lecturing to teach. I spent the rest of the night exploring countless videos on various topics of chemistry we hadn’t yet covered in my class. I was ecstatic; I had discovered a ceaseless source of knowledge at my utter disposal.

Near the end of my junior year, I should have felt satisfied knowing that another year of school was under my belt. I had been dreading it the summer before, knowing that I would have to deal with a massive course load along with my increased extracurricular responsibilities. After the year finished, however, I instead felt empty. I wanted to unearth more knowledge about chemistry and all its intricacies; but more than anything, I just wanted to learn