Pre-Med School Journey: Rude Awakening

So last night was my first class from 1:30pm to 7:30 pm. In organic chemistry. I have not taken a chemistry class in about 4 years, and barely had time to refresh my mind. Thank goodness there was no quiz, but for most of the lab I felt so out of place. Surprisingly, I’m not the oldest student there, but I thought I was the only one who didn’t know what was going on. It felt like everyone already had their cliques, and I knew no one. While everyone else was breezing through the lab, I was there stuck for some time trying to remember how to do this. Pride stopped me from asking too many questions, and somehow I magically finished the lab correctly from the vague memories I had learned before. As relieving as it was, that may be the only time it will work for me. Lecture was okay, except the professor has a thick accent that can make it hard to hear sometimes. During class, he told one person she can’t be in this class until she officially registers; so she left frustrated. And another girl he kind of talked down to, saying she better re-learn this stuff or she’ll fail. I felt bad for her, but that’s when I knew at least I wasn’t the only one. By the end of the night, I met two other classmates who both said it’s been years for them too. I’m still waiting for my textbook to arrive in the mail; I hope it wasn’t misplaced. At home, my sister got herself a new car for her family to drive in. Now I don’t have to worry about the driving situation, but sadly that means I go back to driving the oldest car that barely gets by. I really want a new car, folks. But my whole life has been about making do with what we have, and the good qualities that come from that can be rare. If I do make it to medical school, I don’t know how much organic chemistry, biochemistry, etc. will actually be used in the fields I was thinking of studying but last night was a reminder to me. I already made it farther than I did about 5 years ago, when I first attempted organic, but I need to study better than I did back then. Welcome back to science, Steven. . .