Stability.

A key component in understanding how molecules interact with each other is to understand how stable they are. In order for a reaction to take place it is important to have 1 or more unstable reactants in order to propagate a reaction. Lets take the Benzene molecule for instance. It is a well known fact that benzene has a hard time reacting with anything because it is extremely stable. Some of the reasons why it is so stable revolve around its aromaticity. It is a Cyclic molecule for one--leaving it less open to nucleophilic attack. It is also completely conjugated showing a sharing of electrons across the entire face of the ring. The key is that over broad range of its parts it is balanced and complete.

Now you may ask why would i bring up Benzene like this? Well first off i would call my self a little bit of a science nerd with it being my major and everything (Molecular and Cell Biology). Secondly, i think its important to realize that stability in one's life is important. Prior to this last week i would say that my life was so imbalanced that i was much more on the side of volatile than stable. I would spend the majority of my free time playing video games or reading something online about video games. I would severely procrastinate anything of importance and the last of my priorities was schoolwork. I would stay up all hours of the night, which would shift my whole day forward several hours and leave me even less waking hours to accomplish those things that i needed to. In general if i were to be compared to a molecule it would look more like Trinitrotoluene (TNT). (for non science peeps--it goes boom.)

Today i feel like I'm heading in the right direction for who i want to be. Now its still pretty early to tell exactly how my life will finally end up to be. Either way i try to think of the man i want to become and the goals and dreams i want to accomplish. I have always wanted to go to dental school. In order to go there i need above a 3.5 GPA and good scores on the DAT. In order to get above a 3.5 GPA i need to change how i think about homework and keeping up with my studies. I need to have the same desire to hit the books as i did when i would enter the World of Warcraft. To put it in perspective--i remember several months ago i was studying for a test the next day in one of my classes. I had put it off for a while and this was my last chance to study. Well about an hour into studying i looked over at my computer and realized that there was something that i forgot to do on the game that would only take a half hour or so. Well 4 hours later and well after 1 in the morning i finally got back to studying. I started falling asleep 20 minutes after that and decided to wake up early to study the next day. Well, guess what? I didn't wake up early and i got the worst grade i had gotten on a test in a long time.

So I idolize my friend Benzene. He's got it figured out. That kind of stability is what i want in my life. Hopefully if i keep going on this path i will be able to look back and be glad that i didn't blow up back when i was a fizzling stick of explosive. Time will tell..