To All Students Taking Orgo This Year:

It's here, and you've dreaded it since high school when your AP Chemistry teacher said, "You think this is hard? Wait until all of you future pre-meds take Organic Chemistry". As soon as you were introduced to pi bonds and formal charge, you shook in your shoes in the fear of what was to come. Well we're here, and this is what you have to remember.

Everything is hard.

Arguably, every class you take as a pre-med during undergrad is "hard" in its own way. Whether it was Gibbs Free Energy Equation in Chem II, or the Krebs Cycle in Cell Bio, or learning how to account for air resistance in Physics, everything was hard at some point. At first glance it was difficult because it took you outside of your comfort zone and forced you to think in ways you hadn't before.

Orgo is the same. Orgo is the same as all of these subjects in that its mostly only intimidating at first because its something you don't know. Once you get past that fact that it is NO DIFFERENT than any other science, you can proceed.

Overcome the fear, or the fear will overcome you.

As cliche as this saying is, it is way too relevant within Orgo. If you cannot accept that, "Hey, I'm taking Orgo. Probably not on my own will, but I know I have to take it and I just have to do it", you are almost destined to fail in Orgo. If you go into your first lecture with the mindset of, "Oh my god. They call this the pre-med killer. Do you know how many people fail this course? How am I different from them? I'm not even smart enough for this...", you are definitely going to struggle.

Orgo is hard work, and so is being a doctor.

Don't go into Orgo to only learn what's on the test and leave. In fact, don't do that for any class. (#Metlitsky). Go into every one of your classes with the full intention of grasping a full, deep understand of the material presented to you, and gain a greater appreciation for every one of your classes.

If you develop a love for your subject whether it be Orgo or something else, and master its art, you'll be filled with such accomplishment and gratitude every time you solve a problem correctly, you'll want to do it more often, and the more often you do it, the better you get at it, and the cycle only begins and gets better from there.

So as a fellow Orgo-taker this year, I wish you all luck and courage as we embark on a challenging (still feasible) course of study.