I hated math. Nothing about it made sense. In the third grade, my mother forced me to memorize the first fifteen multiplication tables. She expected so much out of me, a boy who could barely count without his fingers. It was hard in the beginning, but gradually became easier with time. I hardly even knew the significance of these numbers, yet I was forced to learn them.
Math challenged me every level I went, whether it was moving variables from one side to another, finding the area under a curve, or memorizing ridiculously long proofs. Why, then, did I keep learning math even though it gave me sleepless nights full of stress? I told myself that humans are curious people. Filling our brains with new information is, indeed, satisfying.
But why math in particular? Why am I math a major? With each new math lesson, I discovered that not only did I learn something new; I learned something that became progressively harder with each level. It started with basic addition and subtraction, then equations, functions, and now, vectors in three-dimensional space. Why then, do I love math, if it only gets more difficult each time? Math is just one of those things. If you put the effort into it, you will eventually come to the right answer. It’s simple. Do a problem enough times and you’ll get it. Problems used to take a space, then a line, three lines, a page, and now, they take two pages.
I like to tell myself that I can’t do something, particularly, that I can’t solve a specific problem. I like to set limits for myself, but I also like to break them. At the end of every long math problem, there’s a certain satisfaction that you get because there is only right or wrong and no in between. More difficult problems always give a greater satisfaction when they are solved.
Math gives you a certain feeling, the feeling that you can solve anything if you do the legwork. I love the fact that math makes me smarter today than I was yesterday. By doing math, I show the world that I can take anything it throws at me. Why do I do what I do? Because I can’t imagine myself giving up. And when I do math, I do just the opposite. I persevere.
Comments
I absolutly LOATHE math to be honest, and I am happy to see that somebody has grown to love it. Im sure i will never be able to be friends with math because i have a horrible time with it! I just dont get the concepts too well. I am sad that i dislike is so much becuase solving puzzles and finding answers seems so fun, but math is not! I admire your passion for what was once your enemy.
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