SENSE
From battling uphill to riding on a rocky road, here’s a glimpse of my journey with Mathematics.
Prologue
“Why does it have more letters than numbers? I’m taking a Maths class not Literature!”
A few years ago, I was at loggerheads with numbers. Unable to grasp the “beauty” in strangely organised digits and call it an equation, I started going into an invisible shell and thought to myself, “Hmm, wrong place, wrong time.” Seeing my peers who seemingly breezed through class tests and competitions, I inadvertently enclosed myself even more in that shell. Interestingly enough, a lot of us have been through this phase before emerging victorious in the field of numbers.
But I could not. I would not.
The once constant roadblock to getting a correct answer on a mock paper now became a more obstinate fear in some corner of my soul which eventually took the shape of the much unwelcoming and obnoxious acceptance of: “I’m not cut out for this.”
From graduating IGCSE to embracing A-Levels, I did not find the kind of soul satisfactory comfort in doing Mathematics as some of my peers did. However, I was much more vested in the theories of Physics, but that’s for a later time hopefully. My focus was on getting the correct answer, regardless of my approach.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the opportunity to connect with other Maths enthusiasts online, including some of my fellow classmates, and in a long time, or in fact, for the first time, I got to see what others thought of the ominous subject that I spent sleepless nights behind.
Interacting with these people who think differently from me about the same subject, I was intrigued to say the least. Although I may not have been alone in my journey of figuring out Maths, I was surely lonely in my approach of defeating my anxiety with Maths. And for the first time in my small world, I had a ray of hope.
A hope of being someone who understands.
A hope of being someone who appreciates.
And a hope of being the one who eventually breaks free of the shell and starts making sense out of numbers.
Hi, thanks for reading! This is my second blog and I hope to produce more regularly. I want to use this platform to gain further valuable insights and share my journey with and love for STEM. Please feel free to share your feedback in the comments, and support this blog with your valuable words/thumbs up.
