Long, monotonous, and stressful. These were my exact thoughts when walking into sophomore year chemistry class, expecting another school year of anxiety and struggling to keep my eyes open while listening to a teacher drone on about endless topics.

Though I was surprised when shortly into class as I began learning about my new teacher. So I came back the year after to talk more about and find out the truth behind everyone’s favorite Ultimate Frisbee World Champion, Mr. Dahlstrom.

I was shocked to hear that teaching and science wasn’t always his dream. He said that he enjoyed science, but teaching was something that he wasn’t fond of until his professor said to him, “you need to get over whatever you think teachings like, it’s different.” 

His favorite topic in Chemistry is quantum mechanics,  Mr. Dahlstrom is fascinated with the wonders of electrons and how they can “teleport.” 

He also spoke on the stressful schedules faced by science teachers, highlighting the extra blocks needed in order to reach the lab requirement.

He had this to say, “a normal teaching load would be to have 5 classes of two blocks and then two blocks of study hall, or lunch duty… But if most of our classes meet three out of four … you can’t really get to ten very easily, so most of us end up teaching 11 or 12 blocks.” Mr. Dahlstrom then went on to say, “It makes me a worse teacher, I don’t have enough time to think about what I’m doing…” He hopes that this issue can be resolved, suggesting shorter class times as a solution. 

Moving forward to his hobbies, my first question had to be about his ultimate hobby, ultimate frisbee. 

He gave this statement to sum up the start of his career, “When I was a freshman at R.I.T. I  kinda happened by the field… and they invited me to play with them. R.I.T. is a big school where there were two teams and the B team…  we didn’t really have anyone who knew what they were doing, so I stepped up.”

Chemistry is so strictly bound by scientific laws and principles, which is the exact reason why Mr. Dahlstrom loves the sport so much.

 “The spirit of the game is a part of the rules,” the chemistry teacher had to say, using the game as a sort of oasis to get away from the rigidness of science.

The ultimate frisbee extraordinaire recommends going to rocultimate.org in order to seek more information about leagues, both youth, and adult, around Rochester.

Just as ultimate frisbee provides a way out from rules, woodworking does the same, allowing him to utilize his creative freedom in his passion for the workshop.

He’s made a multitude of items including cabinets, wine chests, a coffee table, a key rack, and cutting boards. 

“Every project I’ve learned something, a new technique, a way to use my machinery differently…” he said when concluding as to why he loves to escape to his workshop. 

Though frisbee, chemistry, and woodworking aren’t the only classes he is fond of: weightlifting and photography are still areas where his potential is still untapped, seeking to express himself just as he does with ultimate frisbee.