When I tell people I studied Mathematics by choice, people give me this funny look as if to say hello, junkie! share the coke. Yes, it is true I decided to pick the tougher major. It is also true that I have hated my life more often than not since then. And there are days still that I wonder if I made the right decision. Frankly, I don't know. All I do know is what I have learned as a student in this field for the past four years which is as follows:
- If you give me a problem, I can probably figure out a way to solve it. It may take some time, it may take some learning of new ideas, and it most certainly will require trial and error but I can figure it out.
- I know how to reason through tough situations. When you have enough professors riding your ass for not providing sound logic, you learn to think ten times before making an argument/approaching a situation. More than Literature, Math has taught me the weight of each word. One small difference between 'and' and 'or' can change your entire argument/disprove what you're trying to prove. So what you say matters. What you do matters. And how you think matters.
- A good 90% of what I learned has no real life application (until you master it, of course) and still I know how to appreciate a good argument.
- To be wrong and to fail is both heartbreaking and exciting. Heartbreaking because it's fun to be right. Exciting because you get to reroute your brain and think from a different perspective trying new variables and different dimensions.
- You can give me a sample of something as boring as owners of lawnmowers and I can get excited about it. You can also give me the most interesting topic to think about and it can bore me to tears. It all depends on how authentic your resources are.
- The most fun classes for me have been the ones where the class averages were consistently in the 30's/40's and everyone failed together. Simply because it's comforting to know that no one knows anything and once that formality of preconceived knowledge is out of the way, you can sit down and come up with creative ways to solve a problem.
As I think back to my time at my university, I know it's important to be thankful for what was given to you in however small form it was but I also think it's important to not paint it with a whimsical brush that takes away from its flaws. It's equally important to think critically about what went wrong and figure out what can be done to fix it. So this is my hope: those of us who did well in university-may we keep doing well, those of us who did poorly-may we find a way to turn things around, and those of us who couldn't quite get there-may we find the courage to begin again.
Congratulations and much love to all the graduates!
