This goes out to the ones who have to go to lecture and then spend another three to four hours in a lab. This is for the ones who are able to rock the white lab coat, full-length pants and closed-toed shoes regardless of the weather. But most of all, this goes out to the ones who are not sure what they’re doing with their lives, yet they still live to suffer.
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Mandatory labs and lab reports
First of all, most of the time, you have to pay an additional fee for labs. Second, let me tell you, there’s nothing harder than scheduling your life around labs. Your schedule is dictated on when these labs are. You have to figure out when to eat and when to breathe, and decide whether to study for the pre-lab quiz, fix your lab report or take a nap before lab. If you miss a lab, you’re done — you might as well call it quits because they’re required. If a conflict were to come up, you have to do way too many steps for lab to work: First, you need to tell your professor your situation, then you need to find another professor that has a smaller lab that magically works with your already hectic schedule, then you need to find new friends or work with random people and hope for the best, and then you have to do the same lab report. Mind you, these lab reports are extensive and can either be due a week later or within 24 hours. Did I mention you’ll have to take more than one lab a semester? Yeah, IT SUCKS, FAM.
2. When you end up doing a lab wrong
Either having to start over, missing steps or just getting the wrong results is not ideal. The longer you stay in lab, the longer you are away from your bed.
3. Having an exam every week
All right, so it already sucks not having a social life, but once week four or five starts, everything goes downhill from there. Life gets so bad that you strategically had to pre-game four weeks before your very first exam to somehow get through it — you go from 0 to 100 reaaaaaal quick. Once you get and finish that first exam, best believe you have another one later that week or two the next week. You’re constantly being examined. Your weekend goes from casually hanging out with your friends to walking to each review session together. The torture doesn’t stop until you’re on that plane, that car ride or at home. Even then, you’re still traumatized and are worried about when those last scores will slide through.
4. Constantly asking yourself, “When am I ever going to use this?”
I get that everything comes from math. Like it’s the baby, and then it grew up to be physics, chemistry or biology. But on the real though, when I’m treating someone’s ACL injury, will I really be talking about the derivative it took for that tear to happen? When learning new concepts in my required classes, I sit in my chair and ask myself, “When am I ever going to use this?” in at least one of those classes every day. Sad, but true. When will I ever balance a double replacement reaction when bandaging up a patient? And talking about and comparing phylums? When will that come up? Why do I always end up finding myself drawing sarcomeres everywhere? I ACTUALLY WOULD LIKE TO KNOW.
5. Having the constant pressure to go to grad school
Personally, I am going a non-traditional route: I’m not going to grad school straight out of undergrad, and I have other plans before I even pursue a Masters or Doctorate degree of any kind. It’s just that you end up constantly hearing about how you should go to grad school to get a decent paying job to support and give back to your family. Yes, that’s always a good route to take, but just remember to look back and think about what you’re pursuing. Just constantly ask yourself whether or not you can see yourself doing a thing for the rest of your life. Hey, maybe you don’t have to drop the extra cash or ask Sallie Mae for help if you figure that out sooner than later.
Just remember, you’re not alone. If you don’t do too hot in a class, don’t be afraid to take it again. There’s no shame in that. Take your time and remember — you can retake a class, but can’t relive a party. Oh, and your parents and your friends love you, and all of us science majors are all on the same stress boat.