Way Back When Wednesday - Molecular Models and Safety Goggles

Taking a break from Korea stories, this Way Back When Wednesday comes from way back in my high school chemistry class.

I took my one and only Chemistry class during my sophomore year in high school.  Honestly, I hated the class.  The subject just didn't make any sense to me; I couldn't visualize it, and that's big for me.  But fortunately, I had an excellent teacher and my best friend, Cortney, was in the class with me, too.  We probably had too much fun in that class.

My least favorite part--or one of my least favorite parts--of Chemistry class was wearing the big safety goggles.  You know, the plastic ones with sharp-ish edges and the nasty elastic band around the back?  Yeah, those ones.  I hated them because they always left deep, red marks on my face, and I was paranoid that the elastic would leave a big dent in my hair.  My hair is curly and flattens easily so it was a valid concern.

I would follow the rules and put the goggles on for the labs, but I would remove them as soon as I could.  I'd also step back, take them off, and check my hair and face periodically if the lab went for the whole hour.

One day, our teacher announced that we'd be doing another lab in class BUT we wouldn't have to wear goggles because we were working with molecular model kits.  We probably wouldn't be needing the goggles because there was little to no risk of getting something in our eyes.  Hooray!  I had no idea what a molecular model was, and I don't remember getting much out of it, but I was happy to not be wearing the goggles.

So Cortney and I paired up as lab partners to work on our models.  It must not have taken us very long because I mostly remember making other kinds of models out of the kits.  And we were having fun!  At one point, Cortney made a horse and was attempting to show me it's realistic movements by bouncing it up and down when all of a sudden a part of it came flying off and hit me square in the forehead!

It didn't hurt very much but we were both so surprised and we got the giggles... majorly!  But we held it together enough that the whole situation wouldn't have been noticeable had we not been sitting in the front row!  So of course our teacher saw what happened, but she just laughed and made some funny comment about how maybe not all of the students could get by without wearing goggles.

Images courtesy of Home Depot and Peter Murray-Rust via Wikipedia.org