Oct+14+Persisting+-+Charles+Wang

When working on the 6 stations for the atomic structure and periodicity unit, one concept stood out to me as the most challenging. This concept was Spectra. As most of the other topics were covered in Chemistry 1 when I took it in freshman year, I found little challenge in learning them. Spectra was completely different. Not only was it a completely new concept for me to wrap my head around, but it seemed like more like a complex physics topic than something you would cover in a general chemistry class. Even a glance at the title "spectra" on the list of stations made me uneasy and nervous to tackle this completely unknown concept. Usually once you start learning a topic, it becomes easier and easier to grasp, after going through the worksheet and completing the harder than average webassign problems (I did have some help), I felt even more unsure about my understanding of the topic. At this point, the unit test was days away, so I told myself, "hey, I don't have to understand this for a few days, why try now?" I momentarily gave up on trying to understand this obscure concept.

One or two days before the unit test, reality hit me. I finally had to get around to learning the concept of spectrum. I felt lazy and unwilling to do work, but my determination drove me forward. I sat down and took my time, studying and restudying the worksheet and the web assign, and even the textbook. After long moments of deep thought and uninterrupted concentration, it hit me. I could finally understand what these notes were trying to tell me. The concept, in fact, wasn't that hard, I just had to put in a proper effort. I persisted, and this lead to my success. Realizing my determination (and the reward that comes with it), I became more confident with the idea of spectrum and stopped stressing about the upcoming test.

After the test, I receive positive grades. If I hadn't put in the same amount of effort to persist and fully understand spectrum, I would've received much lower marks, especially for the learning objective that spectrum falls under. Though, my persistence to understand spectrum didn't only affect… my persistence to understand spectrum (it's a lot less redundant than it sounds). Finding a sort of inner motivation to continue working on something I found difficult was the answer to my worries. Sure, I actually had to find a useful source for learning, but I first had to muster a sense of need to achieve within myself. One cannot achieve with out the desire and the persistence to achieve.