Math was extremely difficult for me
In elementary school, I always struggled with math, which meant that by the time I was in middle school and high school, I was way behind in regard to the expected level of mastering the subject was concerned. Except geometry, I never got beyond understanding basic math at any grade, which kept me from going into algebra, calculus, trigonometry, etc. (heck, to this day, I don’t even know what order they’re in as far as the stair-step evolution goes).
For some reason, I have always been so much better at language and the written word than I have ever been at numbers.
Then, a light bulb mysteriously went on when I was about 16 or 17 years old. All general math seemed to just fall into place for my brain, it was an epiphany. It just became so simple to me that it was like suddenly being able to see clearly after being born with vision problems. The advanced courses were still way out of reach because I had a lot of catching up to do, and because I was getting so close to graduation. My main focus in life at that point was joining the Marine Corps, so I wasn’t thinking much about a subject in which I did not do well, and besides, I had a bad case of senioritis.
Years later, while still in the Marine Corps, I started college, and the requirement to take math courses reared its ugly head. My epiphany from teenage years had served me well enough back then when it had first happened, but it was too rusty and unused to give me confidence a half a decade later. Since I was taking a combination of correspondence courses (I was overseas for part of this college journey) and night school, it was a tedious and arduous process, lasting several years and at several different bases and ships to which I was transferred. Additionally, I had also planned to stay in the Marines for a 20-year career, so I wasn’t really in the mindset of particularly needing a college education or degree. As such, I put off the general math courses, avoiding them until the end.
When I left active duty military service, I once again took up where I had left off with higher education by attending community college through the GI Bill, with plans to transfer to a four-year school to finish up with a bachelor’s degree. As I got closer to the associate’s degree, I could no longer put off the math requirement. once again, being out of practice, I struggled through the 101 and 102 types of courses, but then had to take an even more stringent one for the degree. I can’t remember what all of the choices were, but I picked Statistics. Why in the heck did I do that? Grrrrrrr. I did so poorly that the professor often looked at me as if I had been born on another planet where the concepts didn’t even exist in the abstract. I mean he would actually look me straight in the face as if to wonder, “How is it even possible that you don’t understand this material?” I was a lost cause in his perception, and he applied more attention to the students who were doing better.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
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This post was edited by Randy D at May 31, 2021 7:29 PM MDT
I’m not referring to your experience, I’m referring to mine. Why would what you thought about it or think about it have any bearing on that? Besides, aren’t you extremely science-minded?
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SHHHHHHH! Don’t let Stu read that last sentence!
:(
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