I’m sitting here in this PhD program and sometimes I often go kind of crazy, there’s a lot of pressure. During these times where I question myself, I often look at my past and where I came from, like what am I actually doing. I do this as an affirmation to myself that I can keep going because I tell myself I have done this before, I can do it again and the next time will be better.
So I’ll go through it and here’s some honest thoughts to myself.
Fall 2010
Principles of Microeconomics B+
English Composition & Literarture B+
Statistics A
College Math II: Trignometry BGPA: 3.53
I remember, this was my first time seeing economics, I was fascinated but also very confused in the class. Trigonometry I screwed up and that was my fault, I missed an exam somewhere because I mixed up the dates, that’s a lesson I needed to learn.
Spring 2011
Calculus 1 A
General Chemistry 1 A
General Chem Lab 1 B
Macroeconomics B
U.S. History 2 BGPA: 3.50
I liked calculus a lot and the general chemistry teacher was actually really sweet. Clearly, if I barely understood microeconomics, how would I even understand macroeconomics…makes sense. I’m still trying to figure it out. U.S History, my fault again I didn’t pay attention, really should have.
Summer 2011
U.S Government BGPA: 3.00
Okay…..yeah that’s just stupid. I think I was dealing with some home life stuff during this summer.
Fall 2011
Calculus 2 A
Engineering Physics I A
General Chemistry 2 A
English & Composition 2 B
Texas State/ Local Government BGPA: 3.57
Man, the English language is a struggle. They teach fiction in these classes and writers really know their word play. It’s influenced my work a lot and I still go back to those books to try to learn, last fiction I finished was Harry Potter though. The Texas State class, to be honest, I had no interest it was a requirement, that’s on me again. I’m sure it appeals to others but not me.
Spring 2012
Calculus 3 B
Intro to Biological Sciences 2 B-
University Physics 2 B+
Organic Chemistry 1 C-GPA: 2.68
Man, I screwed up organic chemistry, it was a big class in the morning and I was addicted to league of legends. It’s where a lot of my friends were during this period of my college time. Calculus 3 was the toughest course I have ever taken, I had my only friend walk out of the 4-hour final exam, which was a 50% cut. I will never forget that course. I earned that B. I don’t ever remember Biological Sciences 2 so…..something went wrong there.
Summer 2012
U.S. History I A
Organic Chemistry I A
Organic Chem Lab I BGPA: 3.67
Whew! Taking organic chemistry again, this time way better! The lab was new to me though, barely anything worked and I was very clumsy….I accidentally spilled bromine all over the fume hood.
Fall 2012
Introduction to Ancient Rome B-
Introduction Lab Experiments Biology Q
Introductiory to Biology I C-
Organic Chemistry II Engineering C
Discrete Mathematics C
Laboratory for Physics I B-GPA: 2.13
Dude, this semester absolutely hard as fuck. I was moving apartments and discrete mathematics was an insane course. Like writing theorems was such a new concept to me. Organic chemistry II was a real struggle though, with more synthesis problems. The physics lab was downright the coolest and fun thing plus my lab partner was absolutely a wacky ridiculous bloke….. I dropped biology lab here. I didn’t like it at all.
Spring 2013
Foundations of Accounting B
Foundations of Legal Environments D+
Genetics C
Organic Chemistry Lab/Bio-Chem B-
Biochemistry C+
Physical CHemistry I CGPA: 2.1656
I wanted to branch out into the business and legal world and damn did I fail. Accounting super useful though because it taught me about how to read the bloody forms in America and see how money is connected. Physical Chemistry, I tried my best, I really did and I earned that C, and to be honest I am actually really proud of it because I made it. This semester was tough.
Summer 2013
Introduction to Management A
Elements of Computers/Programming B
Research Methods B+GPA: 3.43
My first time actually seeing how to code and how to talk to the computer. I wrote a 7 nested for loop and told my professor check it out I solved it! And he was like wtf this is (O)n⁷……
This was mind-blowing to me at the time and the first time I tried to write chemistry into the computer using python’s abstraction layer like Atom, Element etc. None of it worked. Research methods we made alcohol……straight-up Gin with my wacky organic chemistry partner. Super fun.
Fall 2013
Foundations of Marketing Q
Vertebrate Neurobiology C
Biochemistry II B
Physical Chemistry II B
Macromolecular Chemistry CGPA: 2.50
This semester, fuck me, macromolecular chemistry I thought was about proteins but I landed myself in chemical engineering polymer synthesis and large-scale production math…. I was like fuck it, let us try it, and man, I got wrecked. I made it but I remember the final, I spent 3 pages writing the answer and handed that exam in with confidence little to hold that I got a flat F. Neurobiology there was a lot to remember and I could only grasp half of it. I know what CD34, CD4, and CD8 do, and what mechanisms trigger them, do you? Marketing, I didn’t like it.
Spring 2014
Foundations of International Business A-
Advanced Inorganic Chemistry Organometallics A-
Advanced Topics in Organic Chemistry B+
Biochemistry Laboratory B
Physical Methods for Biochemistry A-GPA: 3.46
I loved these classes. I learned how the business folk like to communicate and what documents they use and all this jazz. The professor was so cool. Organometallics, I fell in love with Grubbs Catalyst at this time and I used it before and was just like this is the coolest reaction with a synthesis yield of 90% and it can be run in the open air. Physical Methods for Biochemistry, I fell in love with the stories of science here. How people sacrifice themselves to push the boundaries. The professor that taught the class was inspiring.
Advanced Organic Chemistry, we spent 10 hours on a mechanism at the bar all night for this one presentation, and we presented that morning barely functional. Turns out we were wrong and went back to the bar, had some shots, went to bed. Crazy class.
Fall 2014
Foundations of Finance B+
World Literature B+
Biology and Genetics of Immune Disorders C+
Lab Techniques in Organic Chemistry A
Fundatementals of Analytical Chemistry BGPA: 3.18
Tried to take more advanced biology courses and again a struggle for me, In the world literature course I read the Bible, the Quran, and other scriptures. Probably one of the most influential courses to learn about religion and what different communities believe in.
Spring Semester 2015
Foundations of Organization Behaviour and Administration A-
Art and Politics of Imperial Rome B+
Comparative Animal Physiology B
Introduction to Computational Methods Chemistry A
Chem Peer Mentors in Research AGPA: 3.60
I found an odd link in art and politics of imperial rome, the professor and I found a connection on the material chemistry of the roman empire. Turns out Palloza rock is a favourite of mine and I still remember the keyword 6 years later ha!
I actually graduated here with my degree in Bachelors of Biochemistry with a minor in Business. But I chose to keep taking courses.
Fall 2015
Inorganic Reactions and Structure B+
Elements of Software Design AGPA: 3.66
Now, I’m visiting back code again now that the science portion is a little over where I can learn this field. A lot of my friends were computer science majors and I was learning from them.
Spring 2016
Elements of Mobile Computing A
Elements of Programming Languages BGPA: 2.9936Overall Undergrad GPA: 2.99
These were very influential to me. I wrote my first cheminformatic mobile application where I was getting the phone to recognize organic chemistry and return an NMR spectrum. The professor and my friend was the TA, helped me a lot here and programming languages I learned a lot about compiler design especially with YACC (Yet another compiler compiler). Although here I had to browse some spanish python code which honestly was very cool.
So now I start graduate school the first time.
Fall 2016
Structure and Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry A-
Structure and Bonding in Inorganic Chemistry B+GPA: 3.50
This was insanely tough. I did not know where the electrons were going at all, we spent nights and weeks all sitting at a whiteboard trying to figure it out. This was probably the best semester I have ever had in school where I truly felt I was being pushed.
Spring 2017
Advanced Synthetic Analysis A-
Advanced Analytical Chemistry AGPA: 3.85
Advanced Synthetic Analysis, I learned a lot about the tricks of the trade. I will always reattend this course if I ever get the chance again. We had to write our synthesis mechanisms on the whiteboard continuously and defend them in front of our peers. This was the best. Like a pack of close wolves in our own chemical insanity.
Summer 2017
Spectrometry in Organic Structure Analysis A
Computational Biology Algorithms B
Theoretical Quantum Methods SGPA: 3.42
Trying biology again but this time with computers. Barely got it to work, and my first venture through C. It was rough. Spectrometry, I actually cheminformatic methods to help me with identification but even then I needed to do the workflow repeatedly to understand NMR. I love NMR, it’s my favorite instrument.
Dropped out of grad school here to join a startup and to learn business, code from the hardcore engineers in the bullpen.
Came back to grad school several years later for the PhD again.
Fall 2020
Principles of Drug Discovery A
Ethics and Biostatistics AGPA: 4.0
Well took 10 years but I got a 4.0 GPA……I started questioning what will I do with my knowledge here and how I do help people rather than be selfish. Also learned a lot about the full spectrum drug pipeline
Spring 2021
Principles of Drug Development A
Molecular Biophysics B
Spectrometric Methods AGPA: 3.67
I’ve learned a lot. Still processing a lot of it, and I have made a lot of mistakes as you can probably tell. My GPA doesn’t matter, because the friends I made along the journey are invaluable to me, we struggled together and it’s those times I remember the most during my PhD that keep me going.
