Lessons Through Ice Cream by Leslie

Lessons Through Ice Cream by Leslie - August 2016 Scholarship Essay

We had an ice cream lab our last chemistry class. I can’t say I learned too much about chemistry that day, given the lab was our thinly veiled ploy to consume sugar, but it was a relaxing end to a year that wasn’t quite the same. Our class of 14 had trickled onto squeaky plastic floors armed only with new goggles to cover our fearful eyes. Although our class size shrunk considerably after the first test, I decided to continue with it, and I gained not only an abundance of factual knowledge but also personal wisdom.
I considered myself one of the “humanities people”, reading and writing and debating never far from my mind. But, daunted by the sheer amount of work I faced in one of the hardest AP classes, I threw myself into this new discipline and started at the excitement I felt waiting for each lesson. Instead of leaving my mind to float around in the murky depths of ethical debate or justice, I had to work a very different part of my intellect. Like exercising a new muscle, I relished the strain it gave me to memorize the molecular composition of our bodies, to calculate the millimeters of solutions needed to precipitate. I looked ahead for the time I would sit down to a tricky lab, brainstorming practical routes to find the destination of my answer, and meticulously measuring everything, even ice cream, in search of my prize.
In the future, my experience with this class will resonate with me as I consider classes and subjects I previously might have thought unnecessary. My junior chemistry class swung open so many new avenues, and I found about myself that I preferred work with direct application and problem solving. In future classes and projects, I will seek to excel as a student in these areas that I enjoy the most. Additionally, I can say that never before in my short life had I felt like I was snowed under by so much classwork. Among other things, striving to excel in such a difficult subject taught me that prioritizing is the panacea of all high school students, and that, unfortunately, there really is no other way to learn something than by hunkering down and working through problems. Being also at the whim of my teacher’s ever changing partner assignments introduced me to so many different thinking strategies and moments of brilliance. No other subject in my school career has taught me so much so well about the world’s mechanisms, and a little of my own.