complicated simplicity

I guess everything I have done for the past 3 years came to a halting end today, when the circle is finally completed. Today we got the provisional results for our degree, formally a Bachelor of Science with Honors and the Associateship of the Royal College of Science.

Looking back, it was a long way, a long road. Not many people would have taken a path of a chemist. I thought the first year was tough, but then came the second year, and it just got tougher. I’m glad I roughed it through. I loved the labs, the people and the work. But I have also grown to hate Chemistry over the past 3 years. I told myself I needed a break and a change, to go home and take a new direction in my life.

That’s partly why I’m not going to do my Master’s in Chemistry. I thank Dr Taylor’s kind words of "it’ll be a really huge pity if you decide not to carry on in research, you are really good with your stuff" during the presentations. It’s not something I expected from this big man, having worked with him partly for the research project and literature reports, spending a lot of time sparring with him in the cafe more often than the lab. He was a good man, and I thought he saw me as a slacker who took too many coffee breaks. I also thank the kind words of Dr Britovsek and Dr Hill. It’s just over for me in the short term. I think I’ve just gotten too sick of the science for a while. As I have promised the both of you, I will return when I look back.

So yes. I graduate with a First Class degree. After 3 bloody years of pain, fun, joy and explosions.

Now, what next?