KMnO4. It all started with Potassium Permanganate.
Unlike most students, I never really experienced the phobia of stoichiometry, isotopes or the periodic table. Not until the morning of the seventh day of 2006. Yesterday it so happened to be a mere coincidence when I decided to continue Rick Warren’s book, chapter four, which is about who or what is driving your life while on a bus. I had a reflection that anxiety maybe is controlling my life. I am hundred percent sure that it’s not resentment, fear, nor guilt. The book says that something must be responsible for the road you’re driving. But because the day after was supposed to be my first execution under the chemistry course, as soon as I got home I started to browse and re-read my notes.
The next day, we had our anxieties gone when we were given the mocking test papers. For fear of forgetting the formulas and most of what I reviewed over and over I decided to start answering the problem solving part first. But when I saw the first question which is about the relative abundancy of the carbon isotopes, I just simply told myself, "oh my heck".
Thankfully the first part wasn’t so hard I just hope I fared well too in the problem solving part. I was just frustrated that I did not focus so much on the experiments done because those were included in the lab part of the exam! Oh my heck again.
I remember my high school teacher in chemistry who is also my adviser in the committee I presided when I was in high school. He is the reason why chemistry seemed to be easy for some of us in the batch. He taught us clever techniques which made us love chemistry rather than hate it. Plus the fact that he is high in giving grades, his teaching techniques is also exceptional. Some of his techniques had been and have been a convention for me in dealing with now a more difficult set of chemical problems. To sum it up, he is definitely an idol. Hail Milagroso.
But in life, not all things would go as what you’d wanted them to go just as not all chemical reactions are accurate and successful as how you would perceive them. So in my defense, anxiety has its logic in life. People tend to be anxious because life is so unpredictable. You might lose your friends but then you might also gain some. It’s all a matter of perspective and anxiety in the proper circumsatnces. I had just finished reading the book’s fourth chapter which imposed that life on earth is just temporary. True. It is just a preparation for life in eternity. A sanctuary. A preschool. But do we have to be anxious about eternity? Nah. According to an also idol teacher, live your life to the fullest but do not sin…