“I’m not having fun anymore,” I think to myself, as I pour over my chemistry textbook to prepare for next week’s class. The topic is thermodynamics; the module, number thirteen, and Dr. Wile, the textbook's wonderful author, covers a lot of ground in its thirty-three pages. Sub-topics relating to thermodynamics include kinetic energy and potential energy, how they relate to matter itself and to each other, followed by a lengthy discussion of enthalpy and how to calculate it. Notes on entropy, how it relates to enthalpy, and Gibbs Free Energy bring up the rear. While still finishing up module twelve, I skipped ahead and gave module thirteen a cursory overlook like a naughty child opening a present on Christmas Eve. From the onset, this module looked like a piece of cake. "Sure, it’s got a few scary terms and a lot of tables," I thought to myself, "But c’mon, I’ve been through twelve of these suckers. This one can’t be that much worse."

Evidently, first impressions aren't what they're made out to be, as I soon found out. My attitude towards the thirteenth module quickly changed as we delved into it with full-force, having jettisoned ourselves from the safe confines of the previous module. Enthalpy and the change in enthalpy of a chemical reaction made no sense to me, and my frustration at this rose while my previous confidence in my abilities to understand whatever chemistry class had to offer diminished with equal speed. To me, enthalpy was magic, a philosophical construct meant to induce mental agony in students who sincerely tried their hardest to understand it. As the module progressed, things got a little better. The introduction of new and difficult concepts lessened and then stopped altogether as a major experiment approached. By doing the experiment and writing its lab report, I got a shaky grasp on the topics at hand. My handhold got a little stronger as the text picked up speed again and introduced another way to determine the change in enthalpy of a chemical reaction. This new approach made complete sense to me, and I flew through this material very quickly as if on a tricycle riding down the side of a hill. I should have prepared myself for what was to come at the bottom, though, with the knowledge that pleasant hillsides must eventually flatten off and head back up from whence they came.

As I continued reading through module thirteen, the shadow of another beast-like concept meant to fry my brain drew nearer by the paragraph. “Before I begin this section,” Dr. Wile said as means of introduction to the concept he would soon unleash upon his unsuspecting students, “I think it is necessary to warn you that the discussion which follows gets a little deep.” At first, I took this to mean that I would simply have to pay very close attention to what he said in order to understand it. This excited me, as I enjoy being challenged in various ways, but I was in no way prepared for what was to come. The text suddenly filled with such crazy concepts as Hess’s Law, state functions, enthalpy of formation, and others. In the quagmire of this “discussion” that seemed a whole lot more like a cruel form of mental torture, I slowly pinned Hess’s Law and state functions to the ground, breathing hard for a moment before lurching forward to do the same with enthalpy of formation. This concept gave me much more trouble, and we arm-wrestled together for a much longer time. He proved much stronger than I in the end, however, and so, after a few more moments of incapacitating pain, I cried uncle, and he let me go.

Having not mastered this concept, I continued on with my black eye, making a deep mental note of Enthalpy of Formation’s position within the text and swearing I’d return one day and finish him off. After the desperate struggle with Enthalpy of Formation, things lightened up a bit again, and the text shifted its focus to a discussion of energy diagrams for chemical reactions, something that intuitively made more sense to me than the previous concepts. Later on in the module, after the discussion of energy diagrams, I meet many more frustrating, irritating concepts, but I’ll spare you the gruesome details of how they, too, pinned me to the ground, since time is short and my always faithful attendant, Mr. Word Limit, is tapping me on the shoulder, whispering that I have but room for one, final paragraph.

In class that week that I'd prepared so much for, us chemistry students and Mrs. Rathbun talked about the concepts in the first half of the module that I introduced to you earlier. Meeting the concepts again in the safe confines of class, with Mrs. Rathbun standing by to keep them from jumping at our throats, still terrified me, though I was more confused then afraid. This confusion over exactly what some of these concepts were, why they were trying to ruin my otherwise perfect day, and how to use them didn’t really clear up until just recently, weeks after I was first introduced to them. Through persevering in my mental wrestling with them, and also from getting another chemistry textbook’s perspective, I can truthfully say at long last that I have overcome many of these concepts and added them, like subdued enemies destined to serfdom, to my belt of tools to use in chemistry class. So, whatever tasks or concepts loom before you, from my own experience, I can say that perseverance and determination are two of your greatest guides in learning or undertaking anything in life. So, as parting words, never give up, and always give life your best shot!