Learning New Things Is Hard, Part I

I'm taking an upper-division chemistry course this semester. I don't have all the pre-requisites for it. I'm not majoring in chemistry. {The reason behind my enrollment is my research, which takes place in the chemical engineering department.}

It's not the hardest of classes, especially not when compared to the upper-division physics I surround myself with. But it has a lab section.

I have never in my life taken any sort of chem lab.

My first task on our first day was to inventory my allotted drawer. I stared at my list. I stared at the contents of my drawer. I went up to the TA and said, "I've never taken a chemistry lab before. I've worked in one but never taken one, and I don't know what half this stuff is."

I then went on to utterly fail when I wrote my answer to an assigned question on the board. I hadn't known we had assigned questions.

It was a bad day.

I walked out of the chemistry building almost in tears. "I don't know any of this," I told God. "I'm having to learn everything from scratch. I'm a senior! I shouldn't have to still be learning new things! I don't even need this class!"

And He said, "You don't have to keep learning new things. You can drop the class and never have to endure this learning process again."

I liked this.

"But," He added, quite clearly, "the moment you stop learning is the moment you stop growing. Stop learning, and you will be stuck exactly who you are and where you are for the rest of your life. Stop learning, and you've reached your ceiling. Forever."

I didn't drop the class.