Grades

Growing up I was always a little jealous of those kids in school whose parents would reward them with money or gifts if they made good grades in their classes. Probably because my friends and I all had nerdy Lab parents, we were never given tangible incentives for doing well in school. The satisfaction of doing well in school was supposed to be our reward for doing well in school. (Blah, blah, blah...) Somehow over time that did become our motivation (that's why we're all nerds ourselves, now, just like our parents).

I have never been very good at math. I can understand equations and what they mean physically (if there is a physical application) and likewise, I can usually figure out what mathematics is dictating some physical phenomenon. But my fault is that I don't have that intuitive sense for numbers and mathematical functions. My brother and dad have it, but that gene must have skipped over me. They are able to memorize derivations and "rules" of trig, geometry, and calculus--I have to write everything down and go through a function step-by-step and often need to look up the "rules" before I can solve anything beyond a simple problem. (Actually, I tend to log onto Gmail chat and ask Edward how to do it. I love technology!)

In seventh grade I was degraded from "high" level math class to "middle" level math class. This made my dad upset so he finally broke down and motivated me to do better in this class so I could be bumped back up to "high" math. He promised me that if I ever made an A in a math class that he'd buy me a solid maple chair for my desk in my bedroom. This wasn't going to be some super fancy chair--just a normal, no-nonsense chair that cost about $50 at Target. If you know my dad at all, you know that he is admittedly "frugal" (for some things you could say that he is actually secretly "cheap"). He wouldn't buy the chair for me since he'd just built me two solid wood stools for my desk using the wood salvaged from the shipping crate of his newly purchased darkroom sink. (Salvaged wood from a shipping crate...I wasn't kidding about his frugality...). These stools were (and still are, I have them both at my house here in Davis) very nice and beautifully made with rounded edges so as not to hurt my butt while sitting at my desk struggling with my stupid math homework every night. My only complaint about using a stool for my desk is that there wasn't any back support like a chair has. He said he understood that back support is really important so I'd better get crackin' on those math problems if I wanted that chair. Well, that same year I got an A in my math class and was bumped up to "high" math once again. He bought me the chair, as promised, and I still have it.

When I checked my grades this quarter, I quickly emailed my dad to show off that I'd received an A in my food physical chemistry class and an A+ in my statistics class. Any scientist will tell you that physical chemistry is a dreaded but highly interesting and useful subject. Many, many people struggle with this course because it is all math, math, math. There are bumper stickers that say "Honk if you passed pchem" not "Honk if you got an A in pchem."

When I signed up for the foods class I hadn't realized that it was a physical chemistry class at all--I just thought it was a food chemistry class. During the introductory lecture, the professor said something like "well, this class is really physical chemistry of foods..." I was thinking to myself "WHAT?! I don't want to take more pchem....I'm done with that! I've been TRICKED!" But I stuck it out because I needed the credits and I love food and I love chemistry. It turned out to be the best class I've ever taken. (Strange how that works...)

My email to my dad said, "You said you'd give me a chair if I received an A in a math class...what do I get if I get an A in a physical chemistry class?"

His response was, "A new equilibrium constant?"

What can I even say about a response like that? All I could do was laugh. I was hoping he'd buy me some new windows for my house or something. I guess those motivational gifts for good grades stop when you get to graduate school...phooey.