The Chemistry of Boyhood Failure
Understanding the form and function of a Bunsen burner or beaker is one thing; trying to understand the molecular structure of a aluminum potassium sulfate reagent is another. No, I never had a head for chemicals. And when my misery was compounded by the introduction of atomic bonding, I was sure I was going to have to steal away on the next express train to London.
Science being such a vast subject, there is no reason why failing chemistry should not doom a person to wander through a liberal arts education. To be sure, failing mathematics did not deter the intrepid Mr. Einstein. No, but there was a kind of complexity to chemistry that managed to nothing more for me than to make my young, pre-pubescent life quite miserable. Give me literature, give me history, give me geometry -- but chemistry? Egad.
I take a great deal of comfort in the fact that the starting salary for a chemist is only $30,000. A humble sum for a complex field, but I, for one, am quite pleased to see all that academic work amount to nothing more than an English major's base salary. Though chemists enjoy a bit of social superiority, after all it is a very technician field that yields spectacular results, they struggle with paying the same bills we liberal arts major still contend with.
I suppose it is the long-term trajectory that makes a chemist's career worthwhile. Senior chemists can enjoy salaries exceeding $100,000. This is a bit of right, as my father was fond of saying. By comparison, a English professor can only look forward to a modest salary of $60,000 at the peak of his professional prowess. Yes, in the end, I should have sought out some sort of chemistry tutoring.
