I enjoy science in general, but chemistry is my favorite. The aspect of problem solving and the vast amount of knowledge one can accumulate by studying the elements is something that I have always been inclined to pursue. This job requires a lot of math and a lot of patience, not to mention the amount of traveling, but it is still appealing because this is one challenge I feel capable of accomplishing. Regular chemists will develop pharmaceuticals in low amounts for testing and research. Chemical engineers take the finished product and produce it in an industrial setting by designing equipment purpose built to optimise the yield of the chemical reaction. They travel to several different factories that include chemical reactions in their manufacturing processes to maintain the equipment and educate the staff. Chemical engineering is my dream job because I will be doing something I enjoy, I will study the elements and gain knowledge that will be helpful in this endeavor, and enter a field with many job opportunities with substantial pay.

I have always enjoyed chemistry. Doing labs in elementary school was one of my favorite activities. I can remember the day we experimented with light bulb filaments. The experiment was comprised of two pieces of insulated wire with clamps on both ends. One end connected to either side of a AA battery and the other was clamped onto either side of a ribbon of tungsten metal. The electricity running through the metal made it glow bright white, and it became hot enough to light my lab partners notes on fire. All of this because a piece of metal was connected to a AA battery! In middle school and in high school, I continued this interest in natural science. I can clearly remember my eighth grade science class. My friend, Quinn and I would compete for the better grade. I would recite my notes over and over until I committed them to memory. I would write so much on my tests, I would always finish orally with my teacher in order to leave on time. It amazed me how Quinn managed to beat me every time, 98% to 99%. That class, without question, was my favorite of all time, because it was there that I learned the most about science. From then on, I have always been sure to take science classes not just for the credit, but because I knew I would  interested in what I would be learning.

The classes might seem superfluous, but they are actually helping me to prepare for my future job. Take for example what we are studying in Chemistry class right now. We are studying the math involved in calculating the amount of energy it takes to bring about a phase change for any given material. For example, how much energy is released when 10 moles of water vapor is cooled to -3 degrees Celsius? It doesn’t matter that the answer is 540,777 Joules. Who cares that you have to convert moles to grams to calculate the the energy lost in the individual states of matter? Who wants to remember to use moles for the transition period equation, where the temperature does not change? Only people who want to relate this technical jargon to practical use. Say that a company wants to manufacture a chemical which needs to be heated or cooled, either to maximise the yield of a reaction, or to put it in a certain state of matter. To know their energy cost, they simply measure the amount of material and calculate the energy needed to reach the desired temperature or state of matter. Personally, this is a job that interests me, and I wish to continue studying things like this in the future as a chemical engineer.
Finally, there are a lot of job opportunities, and it is a financially stable career. Every company that produces food on a large scale uses chemicals. Whether it is pesticides in industrial farming, or the ingredients in Cheerios, there is a chemical process involved. Gluten free foods are a good example. The FDA requires the concentration of gluten to be below 20 ppm (parts per million), or 20 gluten molecules to every one million molecules of whatever else. This is something that has to be measured periodically by a chemical engineer. Every carbonated beverage company uses certain pressures to dissolve certain amounts of carbon dioxide into water; then, they add synthetic sweeteners, syrups, and coloring, chemicals, chemicals, chemicals. Mining companies use single replacement reactions to strip away impurities. Then there is the obvious example: drugs. Aspirin or any pain killer works by blocking the neuro-receptors that transmit the sensation of pain from the site of irritation to the brain. In order to do this, the molecule needs to be a certain shape to block the correct receptor. The receptors in your fingers are different than those in your feet. To determine the shape of a molecule, chemists and chemical engineers use electron and molecular geometry to predict it. In terms of financial stability, engineering in general is a good goal. I will come out of college with a maximum of $60,000 in student loans if I attend a private school, however I am going to the University of Minnesota Duluth, a state school which will leave me owing considerably less. But let us say, I have to a attend a private school, and I have all this debt. The average starting salary is $60,000 annually, so I could feasibly get out of school at the age of twenty four and pay off the loans by the time I am thirty. This is, assuming a slight pay increase over those six years, and I am living within my means. These things make the decision to become an engineer, a good goal to work towards.

I enjoy science immensely, and chemistry is my favorite. Knowing things that will help me earn a living is important, but it is a great comfort that it will also be interesting and appealing. Perhaps the goal of being an engineer is lofty, but this is a manageable challenge with good benefits. Chemical engineering is not the best job in the world, but it is my dream job. The problem solving, the traveling, the math, and the hours of work are things I believe I can do; furthermore, chemical engineering is what I know I want to do. Thus, my dream job is chemical engineering.