To this day I add on my fingers and can only multiply by the low numbers or 10. I remember thinking long division was fun. But I think that is just because I liked my 4th grade teacher. I also know that I was bad at it. Hey, you can be bad at something and still think it is fun! Reference: Things I am not good at: Sports.
Ways my poor math skills inhibit my daily life:
- When I tip, I never add change to the tip to make the total rounded out. You think I can do that math!? You are wrong.
- On the same topic of tipping. I am also a really good tipper. Not because I am super generous, but because I only know how to make 10% from the total. I then of course double it (Yeah! multiply by 2 booya!). And if there is a weird amount of change I will round up to the next whole dollar. Most of my tips are over 20%. Especially at bars or buying other low cost items.
Basically, being bad at math is making me poor. It isn't all bad though. Luckily my complete ineptitude for mathematics set me up for some really great friendships! How is this possible? Let me explain...
How bad math skills gave me great friends:
- Because I scored so low on the math portion of the SAT, I had to take a proficiency exam at Linfield.
- Because I failed the proficiency exam (are you kidding!? There were fractions! Of course I failed) I had to take a remedial math class.
- Guess who else scored low on the SAT and failed their proficiency exams? MARINA AND LIBBY!
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| Here we are 2 days before graduation. Posing as freshman in line for Dillin. (the dining facility for underclassman) |
Because we all suck at math, we ended up in the same class at Linfield during the first semester of our freshman year. It was called Great Ideas in Math. It was Math 116 and it was hard! I mean, we all got an A in the class, but still. Libby and I would sit in my dorm room and do our homework together struggling to get through the worksheets on topics like infinity.
For a better idea of what this class was like… for our final project Libby and I made paper mache Mobius bands and changed the words to Love Shack to be about Mobius bands. We got an A.
A couple tastes of the song:
-"I've got me a Mobius band, it has one side and one edge, and we’re headed on down to math class."
- "A Mobius band is a really cool thing that / we can learn about together! Mobius bands baby!"
This is where I say thank you to my liberal arts education. I will never forget what a Mobius band is.
Obviously this experience bonded us together because we are all still friends today. Libby and I lived together for 7 years [see this post] and Marina moves in next month. Great Ideas in Math? More like great friends for life!!
What a cute post! I am marginally better than you, but mostly because I have to use math more than I ever thought I would for work! See also... I mastered % because I am a crazy deal shopper. Oh and I have a tip app on my iphone :)
ReplyDeleteI'm bad at math too, and it impedes so much in life! I'm an insanely good tipper because I tend to just add 5 or 10 dollars in order to make it easy, and it's often on a bill for under $5 itself! Thats right... sometimes I tip more than the cost of the service itself.... no wonder I'm poor...
ReplyDeletebahaha i am glad i am not the only one who is an over-tipper, because she can't do percentages or add or anything like that.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! Makes me so thankful that I can't do math.
ReplyDeleteNewest follower here! I found you through the blog hop. You have a super cute blog, I can't wait to read more. You can find me at meandmr.com
ReplyDelete-Melanie @meandmr.com
think of all the engineering and calculus we've missed out on? I'm sticking with wlrds. nice post.
ReplyDeleteHaha. This is great! I guess being bad at math is a good thing. ;-)
ReplyDelete