A Chemical Valentine: Exploring my Love for Chemistry

In case anyone asks, "Did you ever have days where you weren't excited about chemistry?" The answer is officially, "Yes". I am known for my enthusiasm, my eagerness to learn, and my curiousity. But, lateley, I'm not feeling any of those things. I find myself fantasizing about having a job naming paint colors, or being a tattoo artist, or just running away to become a professional beach bum. Sure, I know I'd get bored, but that doesn't take away from the great illusion of being well rested, perfectly content, and permanently sun-kissed. It concerns me that I don't have that spark of excitement in my eyes at all times and that everything just feels like WORK. I thought I'd never feel this way. I thought that chemistry would always be fun, no matter how challenging it became. I really believed that my excitement was just who I was and that it set me apart. Now I feel like another whiner..... "this is hard, I'm tired, why do I have to do this, I just want to sleep, I need a vacation, whine whine whine. I wonder if this is normal? Do people who are passionate about their area of study go through a honeymoon phase? I wonder if it's like a relationship, you start out in limmerance with dopamine and other mood lifting neurotransmitters flooding your brain and you think that you'll feel like that forever. Inevitably the newness wears off. If you're lucky, though, you find someone who you love even without those mood lifting neurotransmitters. Some days they might not be your favorite person. Sometimes they might annoy you. Every once in a while you need to go away for the weekend. That doesn't mean you want to cut them out of your life or divorce them. I think this is how I'm feeling about chemistry right now. I love it dearly. I'm committed to it. I want to live with it forever. It's still my favorite subject and I can't imagine life without it. But relationships take a lot of time, a lot of work, and a lot of sacrifice and so does chemistry. So, you may ask, how do I have time to blog? Why am I not working on my studies? Or, better yet, why am I not sleeping right now? Well, it turns out blogging is much cheaper than therapy.