Warning: Not Painful if Taken

The Life Lessons of Organic Chemistry

"Clink . . . crash." An adapter to hold the flask to a rotary evaporator, equipment that literally does what the name implies - rotates flasks to evaporate liquid - hits the edge of the bench. It falls to the ground. Shattering into ten pieces. Swarms of lab coats swivel in the direction of the noise. Goggles stare, assessing the damage. The professor rushes to the scene with broom and dust-pan in hand.

"E, did you break anything else?" He hands me the dust-pan.

My face flushed. I shake my head.

"Good. That's good." He sweeps the glass parts together. "Now, keep going. The experiment continues on."

I nod and turn back to my station. My goggles have fogged up, but I can still see the mess at hand.  Beakers are all laid out, funnels beside them, blocking the unseemly mess of pipettes and stir rods. The column for column chromatography - a technique that isolates and thereby, purifies the desired product after the reaction has taken place - hangs there, ready for the test. Adrenaline courses through my body, but I feel very unsure of myself suddenly.

"Crap. What am I doing again?"

Such words are consistently uttered by science students in their academic career, but even more frequently when dealing with the dreaded "organic chemistry" series. A year and a half ago, I was thinking those same words as I sat down next to my previous lab partner and then boyfriend T. in the second row of Clip 194. The room that normally could hold 200 or so people seemed to engulf the 100 of us that braved showing up.The instructor handed out the syllabus and then promptly began drawing aromatic rings and a series of carbon chains. I copied those structures in my notebook, but what were they? Introduction to inorganic chemistry had not prepared me for the lingo that was used in organic. I just felt this helplessness and wonder . . . Would I really be able to learn all of this?

I felt the same way after receiving my first exam. By then I knew what carbon chains were, how to draw carbon backbone structures - which is just a short cut of using lines to represent bonds between carbons and the ends of those lines for the carbon atoms - and introductory material of organic chemistry. I had read all the chapters for the exam and thought studying once or twice a week with T. had been good enough. However when I had looked at those questions, they seemed applicable and challenging at the same time. I knew most of the answers and probably guessed on a quarter of them. By the end, my brain had checked out and was sending hungry and exhausted signals to the rest of my body. Again, I felt those words come to mind. "Crap. What am I doing again?"

In retrospect, I think half of the battle with organic chemistry, especially to incoming students, is a mental one. From days of high school, teachers and older "experienced students" complain about organic chemistry. They tell horror stories about a failed experiment, F's on the exams and just in general how it is the hardest thing that you will ever do. That you are odd to take Chemistry in college but even more insane to attempt Organic chemistry. They tell tales as if no one can survive the series . . . tales that any student would hear and believe that they were approaching Judgment day. Yet the truth of the matter is the complete opposite. Organic chemistry is literally the study of molecules that have carbon in it. Basically, you just study all the possible reactions and characteristics of carbon compounds. Yes, that does sound and is a lot of material. Yes, organic chemistry is challenging. Yes, it requires loads of work - perhaps, a good 10 to 14 hours per week of studying. But it is able to be done. People do survive and tell the tale. In  example A, the people who tell the horror stories - they probably passed organic chemistry, especially if they are science students. Example B, every doctor or researcher or even some chemistry teachers took organic chemistry and passed, or they would not have graduated. So yes, organic chemistry is hard but passable, and people do live afterwards.

I finally began to have that mind set after I received the grade of my first exam. Of course, it was not the A that I had wanted, but I had done better than I had imagined and survived. I realized, however, that I could do better. That everything that older students had told me was true in some cases but not in this. Organic chemistry was just another class that I was determined to do well in. I began to put in the allotted hours needed to read and study, and that included studying o. chem over hanging out with friends or my boyfriend. A week before every exam I would begin intensely looking over the material, memorizing reactions, equations and any other little detail.The next exams, I entered feeling nervous but more confident. The questions were challenging but definitely doable. That is how the whole course was, though. Difficult but survivable. For example,  I passed the class and in the end of the year, the series of lecture classes along with 50 or so other students. Organic chemistry is definitely doable.

 Yet organic chemistry is not something you just survive and move on from. After putting in those many hours, you begin to have a relationship with organic chemistry, which in some ways yields many benefits. For one, it confirms the need to have determination. You need to want to do well; you need to want to survive; you sometimes need to want to love it. Despite the various times of becoming exhausted and wanting to throw that brick of a book across the dorm room, I had to keep studying and doing well. It was a good test to see if I had the gumption to not only complete those classes but even just to become a doctor. To take the mcat, go to medical school and plan to become a doctor. - And actually it wasn't until I began the organic series that I decided that I wanted to be a doctor rather than just research or bioengineering, but that story can be told later. - So organic chemistry helped me stay focused and develop my goals in life.

It also has the odd benefit as an excuse. As I came to enjoy studying o. chem and nerdly loving it, I sometimes used that as an excuse to not hang out with my friends or even my boyfriend T. "Oh, I am studying ochem," and suddenly, no one would question why I did not want to go uptown or hang out at a friend's dorm or apartment. There would be no questions on why I didn't want to get involved with the latest friend drama. Rather, I would receive the doe-like pity eyes, and "Oh, that is awful. Good luck with that" generic response. After they would leave the room, I would turn on my computer, begin some TV show and open up my ochem book. - I know it sounds lame, but sadly that is me. -

It is also in times like this that organic chemistry does have its consequences. Sometimes having such a determined goal in mind does push other things and people away. As I said, I used o.chem as an excuse to isolate myself and not deal with that outer world.  I could try to blame o.chem for the reason that T. and I broke up, but that would be a false positive. All that I can say is the way I treated o.chem was the way I treat all of my school work. When I don't want to deal with the outer world or emotions, I hide by working or studying. Although it does work in some cases, I found out that it is not the best way to lead a relationship. If I could sum up any phrase to describe why we broke up, it would have to be lack of communication, unbalanced priorities and lack of time spent together. Both of us were too busy studying and working toward our academic goals that it would never have worked out. Organic chemistry teaches the same thing: when you study too much of Sn1 or Sn2 reactions - a substitution reaction where the carbon exchanges one atom for another, like chloride for OH -, you may not be able to do well in another reaction type like elimination reactions. It shows that there is a need to balance more than one subject, or let your determination to learn one thing inhibit your experience of anything else.

Yet again, organic chemistry teaches more than just that - it shows that life does carry on. That you can survive almost anything. Despite my break-up this fall, I could just jump right back into o.chem labs. I continued to study and learn information like every other student was. College still went on. In organic chemistry, you may fail a quiz or homework or exam, but you still have to continue on. Despite failure, you can still pass the class.

Or even in an experiment, despite any broken glass or initial failure, the product needed to be purified. I still had to pour my white powder into the column. Despite my shaking hands or even spinning brain, I poured the solvent or eluent into the column, stirred it with the powder, cleaned the column, and began to run the results. The product was separated into eight fractions, all of which showed a separated product. Somehow I had managed to extract what was needed. It goes to show you, though, that despite any bumps in the road or hardships, you can still survive. The experiment of life can still yield passable results.

Note of Explanation: If you need me to explain any of the o.chem terms in more depth, just let me know or ask me questions about o.chem, I would love to answer. Beside that, here are some funny anecdotes or jokes that were put together by o.chem nerds.

Video: I wish our professors would do this . . .

Also this joke is dealing with a reaction that forms an aromatic group (six ring group) from two compounds of carbons, one that has double bond single bond double bond - or a diene. But yeah, you probably get the joke.

To show that I am not the only nerd that likes ochem: http://www.organicworldwide.net/content/brain-relaxation

And you don't have to feel obliged to read the video, cartoon or website, but I thought that it would lighten the mood and make you understand a little bit more about the series.

Hope you enjoy! : )