I was sitting in math class today when I heard someone reminiscing on the good ol’ days, back when math was fun. It reminded me of a time when I thought math was fun too. . .
It was my freshman year of college, first semester. I had just had a particularly fun time in math class before riding my bike back to my apartment. I was locking it up when a fellow resident of my apartment complex came up and started talking to me. Being college students, the first thing he asked me was, “What’s your major?” I responded with a bright smile “Math!” And then he looked me over and said, “You know, math’s a pretty hard major. Most people end up giving up because they can’t handle it.” I un-cleverly responded, “Oh.”
But I’ve thought a lot about that conversation. Mostly when I’ve had a particularly rough day in math class. And this is what I should have said to my unbelieving fellow math major.
Yes, I may be a small, white girl who looks much too awesome to be a math major, but let me just tell you that I am the most stubborn person that ever existed. You just wait and see, and in four years I’m going to hold my math diploma high in the air and say, “WHAT NOW PERSON WHO SAID I COULDN’T DO THIS?!”
And that’s what keeps me going through math tests that are much to difficult to finish, through homework assignments I don’t understand that keep me up late at night, and teachers who really have no idea how to teach. So, thank you person who’s name I don’t remember. There are many times I could have switched to a major I might have actually enjoyed, or one that would provide me with some sort of career opportunity that did not require an additional 5 years of Math Grad School, and hey, maybe I would have actually had fun in college. But no, thanks to you I’m going to get my math degree and after shoving it in your imaginary face, I picture our conversation going something like this:
Well, dang. What the freak am I supposed to do now?
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