Chemistry? Your crazy...

I decided that I wanted to become a chemist when I was a junior in high school. Six years later I have become very used to the looks of shock or confusion whenever I explained my career path. Some of the most common responses are wow that is hard, I hate chemistry, you must be smart, and occasionally the question of why I do it. Over the years the reasons why I do it have changed and sometimes I have even questioned why I do it myself. But last Friday, as I drove home from work all doubt seemed to fade.

In the beginning the "why" came from an inspiring high school Chemistry teacher and the desire to eventually use my Chemistry knowledge to help cure diseases. As I progressed out of high school and into college I found that Chemistry is hard sometimes really, really hard. But each time I would overcome those really, really hard tests or classes there came a true sense of accomplishment and pride. Pride is also a reason that draws us nerds to Chemistry because your shock and awe feels good. Because lets face it most of us Chemists grew up as the quite introverted nerd always in the shadows of the athletes (lets face it Chemists are mostly very uncoordinated) and the popular social kids. So that sense of shock and awe feels pretty good. But truth be told when you tell us we must be smart, we are often filled with doubt. Because most of the time we have no idea if we are really going to conquer the hard part or if we are really "smart" enough for science.    

But you know what, most of the time we do conquer the hard part and most of the time we do it with the help of those around us.Because it really does take a special type of person to study and work in science. It takes a person who is driven to work independently but more importantly it takes a person who is willing to set aside their pride and contribute to the greater whole and help a friend in need. Because one of the greatest "whys" is the people I get to be surrounded by. Maybe it is because we come into science with a goal of making the world better or maybe it is because of the our mutual appreciation of science and love of what we do. But all I know, is that I would not want to be surrounded by any other group of people than these smart competitive chemists.