I’m an English major. I live for reading and writing not for math. Math is a subject I prefer to keep at arm’s length because honestly I just haven’t been good at it since elementary school when I was just introduced to pre-algebra. Don’t get me wrong, I can still do math, but I’m not the best at it. That being said when it came to choosing majors for college I strayed from all sciences because I knew that I’d be required to take again if I chose something like chemistry or biology. It was inevitable.

I played to my strengths and chose English but even now I’m still doing math. Am I enrolled in a math course? No not at all but I’m still doing math. By no means do I have an eidetic memory, but my memory is rather decent so I recall things from past school years with relative ease. I recall certain math concepts with clarity or after an example remember how to do the concept.

One of my suite mates is doing ALEKS this semester and many a night has been spent trying to decipher the lessons of the program. I have spent hours at this point in the year doing math problems despite being promised a math free college experience. Math these days seems to me to be a double edged sword. On the one hand my high school teachers taught me far more than I believed they did, and on the other hand I didn’t listen nearly enough during high school. Still I rather help my suite mate out then watch her struggle with ALEKS.

It is vastly comforting to know that I won’t be expected to deal with ALEKS on my own. I wonder though how much math I’ll remember a year from now once I’m further entrenched in English. Will I still be able to help my suitemate with her math or will I be just as confused as she is? Time and time again I’ve been informed that math is vital to everything and while I’ve always argued that English is equally valuable I’m not too certain anymore.

How much do I actually need math? Even if I’m an English major until I graduate, won’t I need math in some capacity?