Purple Rain #2

Freshman Chemistry is truly a sight to behold, especially at a school known for its pre-med program. There are two main types of people in that class: the pre-meds and the poor souls who are in majors that require that class for "breath". Those in the second group was usually engineers cursed to their fate by ABET, the agency that accredits enginneering degrees. Make no mistake, the beaurocrats at ABET are evil. As in the biblical-scale evil that deserves fire and brimstone. I'm pretty sure they eat babies too. I've concluded that forcing engineers into a pre-med class is really just a large scale hazing ritual. All the members at ABET had to take Freshman Chemisry, so, dammit, others should feel the pain to be admited to the engineering society. I'd rather just take a paddling and be done with it then deal with a year of that class. Please, sir, may I have another?

Those in the first group, the pre-meds, are quite different. These students are used to getting straight A's in high school and are dead set upon becoming doctors. So dead set, in fact, that they almost treat becoming a doctor as the meaning of their life. I've seen these people study impossible hours and just simply decline to do anything outside of school. The little things in life just seem unimportant to the final goal of getting into med school. Of course, despite the countless hours of work they put in, they don't get all A's because of course, if they did the professor would look to it as a sign of failing to weed out the weak, and the TA's wouldn't feel impotant. When some get B's, it is as if their life meaning is in jeapody, and after sulking for a good while, they just lose even more of their free time when they stress themselves out even more for Organic Chemistry. College for some pre-meds is not "the best four years of your life" to them but almost the worst.

The problem of focusing your whole life on one goal isn't inherent to pre-meds. All the more often, it seems that sizeable portion of the general populace justs keeps their eye on one goal and ignore all the smaller things in the way. Whether that goal is med school, a romantic interest, or a championship, it can consume us and make our lifes seem less as something intrinsicly valued but more of a means to an end. The trouble with this worldview is two fold: you don't always accomplish your goal and doesn't explain what happens once you get that goal. By looking at life as a means to an end, it seems that without that end life has no meaning. But life can, and should, have meaning regardless to the ability to obtain a pre-determined goal.

The little things in life are not a distraction from a furfilling life; they [b]are[/b] what makes a furfilling life. All too often we get caught up with where we are going, but never stop to look around and appreciate where we are. The smile from a friend, the taste of dinner, the sence of accomplishment after writing a paper, these "trivial" things is what really makes life precious. This is not trying to say not to make goals, but to try to enjoy the process of achiving those goals. And when you fail at goals (which happens to be quite often), just make new ones and persevere. You never will achieve all your goals, otherwise life would get incredibly dull, so just enjoy the ride, even if it is a bumby ride.

Earlier in this post I said there were only two types of people that went to Freshman Chemisty. I lied. There is a third type who takes the class not for pre-med, nor for distribution. They are taking it for the sheer fun of it. These people never seem to let big things overrun their life and seem to be able to understand the true beauty of life.

Granted, they are still insane.