Haley 1

Madison Haley
Professor Edmiston
ENG 101
12 September 2016
Broken Glass Beakers
I am not an expert in the scientific field. I still have much to learn about science, and even
more to learn about myself. However, science isnt just a course, it is a crucial part of my life.
Science has left such a huge impact on my life and my future and it is something I can use for the
rest of my life. It has helped me to find my passions, and has helped me to pinpoint the direction
in which these passions will take me in my future.
I am a biochemistry major, but not because Im super smart and a total nerd. Im a
biochemistry major because science is a calling if mine. Also, biochemistry will help me meet
my goal to get into medical school to pursue my dream career. The feelings of wonder and
amazement before and after a lab are things that make my future seem brighter. Science, and all
the magnificent things you can discover through it, is not only my area of study, but it is also my
hobby. Finding my passion in the scientific field of study was heavily influenced by the courses I
took and the materials I learned in high school. Without those four years, my path would
probably be headed in a much different direction.
High school remains as a super influential part of my life. The science courses I took
during my high school career remain as the driving forces behind my love for science. I
remember my two biology courses being very rigorous, but everything somehow came fairly
easily to me. I remember how the rooms were small, cold, and always smelled of formaldehyde.
Then there was chemistry, which, being described as difficult would actually be quite an

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understatement. In my chemistry class, there were four large windows on the west wall, and in
front of the windows hung a white board sized replica of the periodic table with each different
type of element expressed by a different colored font. The room was fairly large, with two giant
vents pointing towards the outside of the building just in case someone spilled the sometimes
hazardous chemicals during a lab. My chemistry teacher was also an old nerdy looking man, and
I swear he could easily pass as the twin to Doc Brown, the crazy scientist from Back to the
Future. Finally, in Human Anatomy and Physiology, everything came together and went very
smoothly. There were no desks in the room, only nine tables with four chairs pushed neatly to the
sides. My teacher had a large fish tank with about ten brightly colored fish living inside. Since I
had the class first thing in the morning, the fish were always very active due to their morning
feedings. The room, like biology, held the heavy stench of formaldehyde all year long. The
course itself was fairly interesting and quite easy as well. These three courses fueled my passions
and helped pave my path for the future.
Before attending high school, my average grade in any science class was a B. I never
excelled in science, and I honestly found it quite boring. However, on the first day of my
freshman year, I remember walking into my first biology class and being in total shock. The
room was small, cold, and full of those cheesy motivational posters you see on clearance at
Walmart. On one wall, a blue poster with white font read Keep Calm and Study Biology and
on the other wall, a large movie-sized poster showed you everything you would want to know
about a single strand of DNA. At the front of the room stood a middle-aged man of average
height wearing thick black glasses that made his eyes bulge and some brown loafers that seemed
to come straight from a JC Penny advertisement. Right away, he passed us our books and had us
begin to read. As I read the words on the pages of the biology book, things just began to make

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sense. From Darwins theory of evolution, to the theory of natural selection, and even to the idea
of Punnett-Squares, I understood everything in the book with ease. Something inside of me
ignited, and the information became easy to retain. By the end of the year, I passed the class with
flying colors, and would later pass the AP Biology class and exam with the same level of
enthusiasm and ease as the freshman year course.
Looking back, chemistry was by far the most difficult class I have ever taken. Not only
were there many things to memorize, but the labs and exams were so precise, and you had to be
very organized. There was no wiggle room, and slip-ups were very frowned upon. However,
chemistry is the course that drove me to choose a major in biochemistry. I remember the first lab
I ever took part in. It was the middle of September of my sophomore year of high school, and I
walked into the room to find these obnoxious goggles and a floor length lab coat waiting on my
desk. Written on the board were instructions telling the class to put on the lab coat and goggles
and find a group to work in. We had to choose wisely because this would be our group for the
remainder of the year. I chose my two best friends, Taylor and Alex, who still to this day dont let
me live down the events the panned out during that first lab. To be honest, the three of us had no
idea what we were doing. We had to create mixtures of chemicals, and describe our observations.
We also had to burn substances on fire with the Bunsen burners and describe their reactions. I
was in charge of mixing our solute together, and as I walked to the front of the room to get a
beaker, I could feel my anxiety build. I never liked handling anything that was glass because I
always manage to drop things out of nowhere. My hands felt clammy, and I started to break a
sweat. As I reached for the beaker filled with a chemical which I still cant identify, my hand
slipped. I ended up knocking two other beakers full of the substance onto the floor. Glass
shattered everywhere. I was so afraid that my teacher would be upset that I let a tear escape my

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eye. However, when he came over, he looked at me with a huge grin and proceeded to tell the
class you cant be a chemist without making a mess every once in a while. It was his reaction
that made me fall in love with the idea of studying chemistry for the rest of my life.
My anatomy and physiology class also helped me discover what I wanted to do with a
degree in science. I remember the day we began to learn about diseases and the drugs used to
prevent them. I remember reading through the textbook and falling in love with the immunology
chapter. Pictures of blobs clung to the pages with descriptions that made little to no sense until
explained in regular English, but the idea of the effects certain chemicals had on the bodys white
blood cells, which fight diseases and foreign cells in the body, fascinated me. Although the test
for the chapter crushed my grade, I was still so interested. Today, because of this chapter, I have
my eyes set towards a career in medicine so that I can discover first-hand what both common and
uncommon drugs do to the more common and more rare diseases of the human body.
Honestly, science requires the memorization of way too many specifics. In biology, there
are so many theories and facts that students are expected to know, and oftentimes it feels
overwhelming. Seriously, who is going to remember all of the points Darwin makes in his theory
of evolution? I know I couldnt repeat them word for word even if I studied them over and over
again, just because that isnt my way of learning. And the periodic table is way too large to
memorize every element. Believe me, I have tried. I remember having a notecard-sized Texas
Instruments periodic table that my teacher laminated, and I used it on every test in Chemistry. I
couldnt tell you more than three of the noble gasses, and those are the easiest ones. Also, when
you get to Anatomy, the bones of the body become your best friend. I recall studying my charts
countless times, even referring to the Hannah Montana Bone Dance from off of Disney
Channel to try to memorize all 206 bones in the body before my mid-term. But, eventually, the

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specific details stuck in my brain after constant repetition from my teachers for the year. Today, I
still use the information, because Biochemistry requires it. The scientific materials are relevant to
my everyday life because they relate to my field of study, and without them I dont think I could
succeed in my college career.
After I complete and receive my bachelors degree in biochemistry, I plan to continue to
pursue a career in science, particularly in health services. I plan to attend medical school and I
aspire to become a pediatrician. I want to make a positive change in the world while also going
towards a goal I know I will enjoy. I will be able to give back to the community that taught me so
much about myself. But, as of now, I am just a freshman in college saying I love science, forever
dreaming of the day I can finally be called Dr. Haley.