A Good-bye to O Chem

I can’t believe I’m saying this, and friends tell me I’m crazy…but honest to goodness, absolutely no sarcasm, I’m sad that my organic chemistry classes are done. Less than a year ago I would have never imagined. There’s a couple reasons I think. One: In comparison to my two intro biology (now that could be a curse word) classes I actually got to think and not just memorize. There was actually a challenge, one that was only attainable with work and logical reasoning. It’s like learning a foreign language with all the amazement of how everything comes together but with less nouns, verbs, and adjectives to memorize.

Two: Dr. Perry, our professor wins the award for the best professor I’ve ever had. He hit all the critical points that are so hard to do. Knowledgeable in the subject (don’t laugh, I’ve had plenty that aren’t), speaks English (another don’t laugh one), genuinely interested in what he’s teaching and wants you to be too, knows how to communicate the material simply and concisely, doesn’t make students keep doing something over and over again just because he can, has high expectations of students and is challenging, and is approachable. I definitely have a list of the top four profs, and surprisingly two are from UAA so yeah, go there.

Three: After spending so much time with the other students in the class, it was a bonding experience. “Hey let’s try to pass Dr. Perry’s chem class!” I actually know every single person in my lab and have had a conversation with them and studied together. That doesn’t usually happen. It was nice that it was a lot of the same people from the summer lecture. We’d be in the middle of the hall or in the lab talking about chemistry and it wasn’t even near the class time. It was such a great relief from Girdwood, “dude, man, that was some sick pow.” Don’t get me wrong, I love skiing, but I’d like to have an intelligent conversation about something else sometimes…especially ones without the funny slang. Anyway, it just reminded me of trying to figure out different wave phenomenon in my electrical engineering courses by bouncing jelly beans off the walls and observing which colors bounced better. (Not a Michigan Tech sanctioned study technique, but if you’re curious the pink ones bounce the best and the white ones are the more of duds.)

So I will miss O chem, but am enthusiastically looking forward to all those experiences in med school. God willing, it won’t be delayed…in his perfect timing, right?