Note: I will most likely be working on this for the entire winter break. It’s my way of preparing for my second round with college general Chemistry, in hopes of actually understanding it. 

Last semester (Fall of 2025), I took on honors General Chemistry One knowing, damn well, that I had no business going into it in the first place. After all, prior to taking that class, my knowledge of Chemistry was basically an amalgamation of what I’d gathered in my college Biology courses, and the bullshit I was taught by my Young-Earth-Creationist teachers at a private Christian school I attended for 10th grade. 

Needless to say, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. All that I could promise myself was that I would try my best, learn everything I could possibly learn, and go from there. 

Given that I passed the class with a C+, I must’ve learned something. Just not enough to give me the confidence to move onto the next level. Plus, I need to take the lab that goes along with General Chemistry One, anyway. 

This all leads me to the purpose of this piece of writing, which to me, is to help me answer the question, “What the hell is Chemistry?” Given that I’m a STEM student studying Biology, which is basically “applied Chemistry”, I probably should know what Chemistry is and how it works. At least, to an extent.