Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Here we go!

So, it is a grand thing to conquer old anxieties, and not only overcome them, but excel in overcoming them. For me, Algebra is an old anxiety I feel I am learning to conquer. I firmly believe that my teenage brain was not developed enough to allow me to complete algebraic problems succesfully in order to retain the processes in my brain with the resources I had available to me. I also firmly believe that my perfectionist self resigned to the fact that math wasn't going to come easy to me. Because it wasn't going to come easy to me, I was going to have to fail innumerable times before I got to the correct solution, and I never liked failing. Thus, as a youngster, I didn't try many new things.Coming from a family with seven children, one child's inability to easily compute math was probably overlooked. I remember vividly the day that math became my enemy. In the second grade, I was in the highest math group and my classmates and I had gathered to the old lady with the helmet hair's classroom. We were subtracting numbers like this: 37-29= ?, or 23-15=?. Because we had to do the little fiddly thing by crossing out the first number and applying a...( you know what I mean, I can't explain it.) anyway, I couldn't do it. I got every single question wrong on my math test. The teacher looked at me like it was my fault I couldn't understand this new process, and I really took this failure to heart. I wrapped my arms around my head and sobbed and sobbed a snotty, salty pool onto my desk. Only Kelcey Kemp asked me what was wrong and what could he do about it, so, I loved him until the seventh grade. Jarrard love is loyal love. So, I am seeing mathematics in a whole new light. With a fully formed and mature frontal cortex, and with a mature 'I don't fear failure' attitude, only a 'I fear never trying' attitude, and a higher than average IQ, I can ace my math 1010 class. I think it is fitting that it is math 1010 and not math 101 nowadays, because 1010 is 911 more than 101, which would indicate math 1010 was more difficult than math 101. (I used the fiddly subtracty thing to figure that out!)

3 comments:

  1. I think you are an amazing writer. Your entire family knows how to speak and write in the most beautiful way. I too am not great with math. If it makes you feel better I had to take math 1010 in college 2 times, I hate it. You'll do great. I think you will have more motivation and focus becuase you are married and are a mother. Good luck!

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  2. Isn't 1010 909 more than 101? I think the fiddly subtracty thing still doesn't work very well! Love you!!!! Joe downloaded all the pics from our trip to his computer so I don't have them on my computer but when he sends them to me, I'll send the ones of us to you! Miss you! Come visit me!

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