30 days of truth day 6: something you hope you never have to do
I’m just going to blurt it out: I hope I never have to bury my child. Anything else in the world I could endure. That…I’m not sure that I could survive.
Ahem.
Anyway, to try to push that out of my head, a close second to that is that I hope I never have to take a math test ever again. I thought I was in the clear after my sophomore year of college, when I finally passed the dummy algebra class after failing it twice. But then I had to go and apply to graduate school which required the GRE. I even ruled out a career as a teacher when I found out that there were hefty math requirements to get the bachelor’s degree.
Even though you generally take math tests quietly and on your own, I still feel like I’m having the mother of all naked anxiety nightmares when I have to actually DO math and then SHOW it to someone, since my computations generally look like this:
It’s not that I don’t respect math and all that is truly awesome about it. I just don’t get it. At all. I mean, I can drive a car better than I can do math and if you’ve seen me drive then you know how much of a dunce I must be about numbers. And I have always hated the reactions that I get from people when they start to grasp how little I understand math. Especially since people who have even a little understanding of it are so freaking smug about it.
So if I could avoid ever taking another math test, that would be wonderful.
Day 01 Something you hate about yourself.
Day 02 Something you love about yourself.
Day 03 Something you have to forgive yourself for.
Day 04 Something you have to forgive someone for.
Day 05 Something you hope to do in your life.
Day 06 Something you hope you never have to do.
Day 07 Someone who has made your life worth living for.
Day 08 Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit.
Day 09 Someone you didn’t want to let go, but just drifted.
Day 10 Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know.
Day 11 Something people seem to compliment you the most on.
Day 12 Something you never get compliments on.
Day 13 A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days. (write a letter.)
Day 14 A hero that has let you down. (letter)
Day 15 Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it.
Day 16 Someone or something you definitely could live without.
Day 17 A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Day 18 Your views on gay marriage.
Day 19 What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?
Day 20 Your views on drugs and alcohol.
Day 21 (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?
Day 22 Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.
Day 23 Something you wish you had done in your life.
Day 24 Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Just post the titles and artists and letter)
Day 25 The reason you believe you’re still alive today.
Day 26 Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?
Day 27 What’s the best thing going for you right now?
Day 28 What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?
Day 29 Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.
Day 30 A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself
October 27th, 2010 at 10:48 am
I too have ruled out possible career paths based solely on math requirements. It scares the shit out of me. When I look at the problems I completely fall apart- they all mesh together into a mess of numbers and letters and my brain just shuts down.
October 27th, 2010 at 11:41 am
it sucks because at one point I REALLY wanted to be a teacher, but even the elementary education track required calculus. CALCULUS. FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
October 27th, 2010 at 10:51 am
I could have written this post. Did you steal it from my mind? I am so hurr durr when it comes to math that it’s downright embarrassing. When I worked retail & someone was paying cash and would hand me extra change AFTER I’d already processed the transaction through the register (meaning I’d have to do the math in my head), I would break out into a cold sweat. I usually had to ask the customer what I owed them in return. I started keeping a calculator at the register for this exact situation. EMBARRASSING.
I knew what the first sentence of this post would be before I even read it, and now we all have to think about something else immediately. Ergh. Going to the cheezburger site now…
October 27th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
when I have to work the concession stand at the baby’s baseball and soccer games, there’s always at least one moment where I have to ask the 6-year-old staring up at me if she knows how much change I owe her on the Big League Chew that she just bought.
October 27th, 2010 at 11:15 am
While TECHNICALLY the correct solution to the problem may be a+b, I feel pretty certain that any teacher worth her salt would give full marks to the answer of “puppy.” Maybe even extra credit. I know that *I* would. I’m going to be giggling at that shit all day.
October 27th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Math should be more interpretive and open-ended, anyway. It’s more interesting.
October 27th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Yeah, I don’t want to do either of those things.
October 27th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
glad we could agree on this. 😉
October 27th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Now in my late 30s, I still have high school math related nightmares.
Puppies are the answer to everything.
October 27th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
really, what problem can a pile of warm puppies NOT solve?
October 27th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
I’m a ‘Does the checkbook balance? It does? HUZZAH!’ finger-counter. My third grader had frickin’ geometry (seriously…I just typed that word FIVE times trying to get it correct because not only can’t I do it, I can’t even figure out how to spell it!) homework this week! I had to buy a damn book so I’ll be able to help with this stuff. Then I silently wept in the bathroom when we were done. It was like a flashback to my childhood.
(also, seeing your concession stand comment – when we’ve been scheduled to work that, I’ve panicked so badly thinking of having to make correct change, my husband has come home early from business trips so he can go in my place, THAT’S how so not down with math I am!)
October 27th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
I took two years of pre-algebra, and graduated high school w/ geometry, and THAT was tortuous. At least your husband’s good at math (engineer, right?) so he can help the baby with homework.
September 28th, 2011 at 1:58 am
Sites you may like…
I saw this really good post today….