Math. It's something we've all had to grapple with, though only some enjoyed it. While in grade school, math was fun. The timed multiple choice and division quizzes, the base ten blocks, those yellow clocks that never seemed to work, and the piles and piles of wooden sticks. They made math fun and easy, even the homework was fun. Once high school rolled around, math was never the same again. In class it was okay, but once the homework was given out and class was dismissed, the panic set in. My notes were fine, but the homework was dreadful. I'm sure you've had so many thoughts while doing math homework throughout the years, but here are seven of them:
1. This doesn't look too bad, I should be able to go to bed early tonight!
The joys of procrastination. It's 11 at night and I've yet to start. It's time to put down the Netflix and get started. Seeing that problems don't seem nearly as difficult as I originally thought is so relieving. Maybe I'll finally be able to go to bed before 2 a.m.
2. Wait, hold on, there's a back?
Oh no. Come on. That's just cruel. As if the 25 questions on the front side of the worksheet wasn't enough. Scratch that early bedtime. I'll be lucky if I get to bed before 2 a.m.
3. I think I've got the answer to this one...
YES! I did it! I got the answer! It may have taken a while, but I finally did it. All of my signs matched up, I added correctly, I distributed properly AND I didn't forget that my answer was supposed to be plus and minus. Maybe this whole math thing isn't so bad after all.
4. You're saying it's not one of the answer choices?
REALLY? I did everything like my teacher told me to and my answer isn't even close to the choices. I even checked my answer. How is this possible? Should I just give up and tell my teacher I forgot my homework? I guess this really is as bad at I thought it was.
5. Will I ever really use this again?
Probably not. I don't think I'm ever going to really need long division, geometric proofs, logarithms, polynomials, or calculus unless I decide to be a mathematician, which obviously isn't happening. I doubt my future employer is going to ask me to find the derivative of a function. This is useless.
6. I can't even think straight now
Once again, my brain is absolutely fried. Math strikes again, claiming my sanity as it's next victim. I can't even count anymore.
Let's face it: unless you're one of those people that everyone envies who's naturally gifted in the study of mathematics, you've probably had to deal with this chain of thoughts at one point or another. Math classes should be teaching us about the real world issues we're going to encounter instead of how to find the domain and range of a function... but that's a different story.
Wait... I thought this list was supposed to have seven points? Ugh, thanks, math.
