Neither of my parents took College Algebra or Trigonometry. My dad took Pre-Calculus (or maybe it was Calculus) and barely passed with a C-. My mom took Statistics, got a mediocre grade in it, tried Organic Chemistry and ended up dropping it just before the final exam. My dad admitted to me that the reason why he didn’t pursue engineering was because of how hard he found Pre-Calculus/Calculus to be. And my mom dropped Organic Chemistry two weeks before the final and switched majors, because of how hard she found Organic Chemistry to be. 

My grandma Debbie, who went to ACC for her nursing degree, would have failed Statistics had she not had help from the surgeons on the floor she worked overnights as a CNA at. My grandpa Lyle, who was really good at math in high school and was the Valedictorian, dropped Calculus the first time he took it at college, and passed with a C the next time he took it. 

Why do I mention all of this? Partly to comfort myself as I brace for my exam grade to come back. But also to show that math is, indeed, hard. Especially when you’re asked to do it with no calculator for half of the test, no “cheat sheets” with formulas written on them, and no extra scratch paper. All while a student directly behind you is clearly in tears, and other students are going up to the professor trying to get her to answer their questions for them (seriously, at least four people went up to her to try to pry an answer from her). 

So yeah… 

Moral of the story, math is hard and people make it infinitely harder. Good news is, I think I have a solid game plan for the rest of the semester, and for the semesters to come. 

I’m gonna do my best not to flunk this class (without jeopardizing my mental and physical health, of course). But, if I do, I’m not gonna beat myself over the head with the F (or, in my case, the W, because my 3.4 GPA is keeping my car insurance very cheap, and if I want to keep the discount, I gotta keep my GPA above a 3.0). Instead, I’m gonna figure out where my weaknesses are, spend the summer filling those holes, and go after this class again in the fall. In the meantime, I’m just gonna keep doing my very best, no matter what! 

Or, in the words of my dad, I’m “finally gonna learn somethin’ for once!”