Math Nerds Rule

Tonight is my final exam in College Algebra. The one class I’ve dreaded taking for the past 18 months is finally over.

The good news is that I was wrong in doubting my abilities to figure out logarithms and parabolas. (Yes, Mrs. G. - you were right, I was wrong. I'll admit it for once.) I was convinced that there was no way I’d ever be able to figure this crap out, but it turns out I was a little better at it than I imagined. So much for not trusting in myself…

Anyway, as it stands right now, I have a high “B” in the class. If I somehow manage to score 93 out of 100 points on the final tonight, I’ll actually get an “A”. (Ha!) But the good news is I only need 23 out of 100 to keep my B. And since in college grading a “B-“ is the same as a “B+”, I’ll be thrilled to have a B for a final grade. It's much higher that I dreamed I'd get.

Returning to college up to this point has actually been pretty easy. I sailed through Economics, I breezed through History, and I did very little work for Public Speaking. The only other subject that was remotely difficult was Accounting, and that was mainly from the nasty amounts of homework.

But math was different. Math has never been my friend. As such, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve had a math class. The last time I took algebra in school, Jimmy Carter was still President and I was a 14 year old smart aleck. So I had to start over from square one for this one.

I still think people come in two groups – those who love math and can do it easily, and those who despise it. It’s sort of like Star Trek or Lord of the Rings – either you love it passionately or you hate the hell out of it. There’s no in between.

But it turns out that algebra was okay. I’ll finish tonight with a “B”, and then next week after a quick break we’ll start Statistics. Now THERE’S a class that everyone is dreading. But me? I made it through Math Hell with a fairly good grade, so maybe Stats won’t be too bad.

Then it’s back to the easy road for a while, and only 7 more classes until graduation. Huzzah!

So let this serve as a lesson to you, kids. You may be like me, and dreading having to take a class in a subject that you don’t particularly care for. Or you may be frightened to try something new, because of all of the internal demons who keep telling you “You can’t do that!” Well, it’s time to bury those bad thoughts and give it a try. You might surprise yourself.

Just don’t call and ask me for tutoring. I fully intend on forgetting everything I learned by about 8:00 PM tonight. :)