Where is my Motivation?

I've thought about this question a lot, especially in relation to my classes at school. I feel that chemistry will be useful in many aspects of my life after I leave high school. There are many careers that require knowledge of at least some chemistry. Many jobs in the medical and engineering fields require the use of chemistry on a daily basis. One day, I hope to work in one of these fields and many of the skills i learn this year will be the basis of what i will do.
I think that chemistry is a much more intersting class than some classes, like math. Although chemistry may involve a lot of math, it involes tangibile items. Chemistry is not just meaningless calculations over and over again (even though it may seem like it at time). I guess that is what motivates me to learn chemistry. In 5 years i might not remember how many valence electrons silicon has, but hopefully I can come back to some of the concepts I learned, and use those skills and apply it to more advanced situations. I guess that sums up why I am motivated to take Chemistry 173 this year, I know that I will be thankful in the future for the skills I learned today.
btw mr. grdinic the movie is Office Space not The Office

politics and science

With everything going on in the country today, it seems that not enough attention is being devoted to science. Which isn't a bad thing considering our economy is in shambles, we just impeached our governor, and to top it all off, the Taliban is having a resurgence. The last thing on peoples' mind is porbably science. Scientific studies often take years of research and scientific developments are not always "breaking news". But nonetheless, science is a part of our daily lives. Many of the breakthoughs in science that we take for granted, were because of the work of talented scientists. And those scientists could not have done their research without the neccessary financial resources. Durring the past 8 years or so, research grants from the government has plummented, going to what Mr. Bush saw as more valuable, like defense spending for the greatly successful wars we have been involved in. Although our economic situation is rough now, hopefully in the future more funding and attention will be given to the scientific fields.