With every science class in college, not only do you have to go to lecture three times a week, which is hard enough as it is, you also have to attend an interminably long lab section. Most of the time, the labs are so over our heads that we have no idea how what we're doing in lab relates to when is happening in lecture. Having dragged ourselves through a quite a few of them this year, here's our take on the stages of a 3 hour lab.
1. Procrastination
The weekend before, you totally deny that it's happening. Lab is approaching, but who cares?! It's the weekend and its college.
"I totally have time to finish this! No need to do it now!"
With every science class in college, not only do you have to go to lecture three times a week, which is hard enough as it is, you also have to attend an interminably long lab section. Most of the time, the labs are so over our heads that we have no idea how what we're doing in lab relates to when is happening in lecture. Having dragged ourselves through a quite a few of them this year, here's our take on the stages of a 3 hour lab.
2. Pre-lab Exhaustion
You stay up ridiculously late, cursing yourself for not starting earlier. You begin to fall asleep while scribbling out your pre-lab.
Let's be honest, you knew you didn't have plenty of time to finish.
3. Dread
As you approach the lab building, you savor your last breaths of fresh air before you walk in.
Will it be night when you come out? A new day? A new dimension? Who knows - anything can happen in 3 hours.
4. Hope
As your TA begins to explain the lab, none of which you remember from writing out your pre-lab because you were asleep, you think hey, this might not be so bad. We might actually get out on time.
Oh wait, you got distracted while she was talking and now you have no idea what to do.
5. Strength
30 minutes have gone by, and you feel good. With two and a half hours left, you can certainly finish early enough to go back to your room and nap. Added bonus: your lab partner knows exactly what to do! SCORE!
6. Panic
Something went wrong. Your beaker broke. You over-titrated. The experiment didn't work. You're slowly running out of time. Can you sweat through a 100% cotton lab coat? The answer is yes.
7. Resignation
This is it. You're ready to give up and you feel numb. You find yourself repeating "It's okay" over and over again under your breath, possibly holding back tears as your TA tells you to run two more trials for precision. The only thing keeping you alive is the thought of the dining hall froyo you're going to drown your sorrows after this.
8. The Upswing
Ten minutes left, and you've finally been given the okay to clean up. A wave of energy come out of nowhere, and you're rinsing beakers and disposing of biohazards like it's nobody's business. You get your lab notebook signed and all but rip off your lab coat.
9. The Victory
You made it. As you stumble out of the building, the air is clearer, the flowers are brighter, and all is right with the world again. And now, time to completely forget about anything related to lab until next week.
