Balancing Out

One of the subjects that I hated the most in school was chemistry. Don't get me wrong – it was, in fact, fascinating stuff. It's just that we were under a rather strict teacher who demanded that we know everything from out textbooks and that we memorize the Periodic Table of Elements. While I didn't particularly have any memory problems, it also must be pointed out that I was in high school at that point, and that I had other things in my mind. I was also of the opinion that I will never be able to understand chemistry on the sole basis that I do so much better in my humanities subjects – English in particular. So this, my friends, would be the reasons why I had practically failed chemistry (at least by my standards – I barely managed to pass, but it was a blow to my ego). But much later on, I found myself required to take up a chemistry class in order to better contribute to a paper that I had been tasked to write. To my surprise and delight, I found that given the right frame of mind and different perspectives, one can actually enjoy studying chemistry.

I would not claim to be a complete expert on it, but one of the most memorable discussions we have ever had was on the subject of stoichiometry. For those of you who don't know, stoichiometry is the process of determining the exact quantities of products and reacting elements within a chemical equation. This is primarily done by balancing out both sides of the equation so that they reflect each other. Of course, I had trouble understanding this until it was explained to the class as thus: “This is very much like learning a new language. There are different components, and you simply have to structure them logically in order to form a story.”

Needless to say, I found chemistry significantly easier at that point – though this may only be because stoichiometry was the very last subject of discussion we were to have. But I have to say that at that time, I didn't hate chemistry – and much like those equations, I think I've balanced out.