bitterdiva

Times, they were a changing

"Charlie was a chemist, Charlie is no more, what Charlie thought was H20 was H2SO4"

I wrote this on a Physical Chemistry exam, however, I didn't make the connection at the time that my professor's name was Charles. I remember living up at the House and bringing Orange Kool-Aid and Vodka to the 'makeup' exam, downing it outside in the hallway and then going in.

I was doomed from the start. I think it was the second time I was taking this class, both times before major meltdowns. I remember trying to steady myself as I walked around this gigantic glass menagerie of a self-made manometer thinking, "maybe that vodka drink wasn't such a great idea." The other not-so-brilliant idea was the H2SO4 rhyme. But I was doomed, doomed to bomb another chemistry exam, I thought that perhaps a little fun rhyme about sulfuric acid might bring a smile to my professor's face.

This incident occurred shortly before Columbine. K tells me that instead of that smile, it could have been perceived as a threat. Fantastical statements were more of my lab partner's shtick - continuously questioning the outcome of sticking one's head in an x-ray fluorescence detector, or the information so freely given on explosives and automotive manifolds. I wonder what happened to that kid, in a post-Columbine, 9/11 world would the self-destructive tendencies and my self-preservation concerns be taken a bit more seriously?

Looking back, I made a poor chemist. I'd make an excellent pharmacist though. Well, I'd make a decent chemist if all I had to do was be a lab monkey with no real degree of higher level formula/compound analysis.

1 prayer | 08:57 PM