Flashback to senior year of high school. The class is chemistry. It is test day. I normally do well on tests and this allows me to skate on the homework thing…I get a C on my homework, but an A on my test…that should average out to a B and keep the parents happy. But this is chemistry class. Private-school-high-standard-I-stink-at-MATH chemistry class. I am doomed. A new horror has revealed itself to me- in order to pass this class, I must do the homework. That should average out the D I am about to earn.
I took the chemistry/physics class my senior year because I thought I loved science. Dissecting frogs, identifying minerals and learning about the world around me was fun. But little did I know that eventually science involved my arch-nemesis, the evil and unforgiving enemy, MATH. Oh, I passed algebra thanks to David Young (by the way, thanks, buddy) but MATH knew my secret and hounded me every day. So I had to do the homework, actually study for my tests and still MATH defeated me. I probably ended up with a solid C- for the year but I will say this- I learned more in that class getting Cs and Ds than any other subject that I got As in.
Fast forward to the present day. I am now a Water Quality Association Certified Water Specialist- Level II. How did I get here? By taking a chemistry test! No, MATH and I do not get along much better than we did in high school, but I guess some of that stuff actually stuck with me all these years. The review session for the Level I test was a rerun of my year in chemistry class…I sat there thinking “I know this stuff!” I was amazed, overjoyed that it was all coming back to me- electron orbit shells, chemical equations, atomic numbers, oxidation…Mr. Palmer would be so proud of me! And also shocked that one of his worst students ended up in a career that used chemistry every day.
But the best part is that I got a B on my test…take that, MATH!
