Saturday, February 14, 2009

Y=mx+b

For the last 18 months, I have been working towards getting a degree. I am in my last two classes and one of them is algebra. It sucks. What pisses me off is that I will never use this in any part of my life. I will never use symbols to calculate an answer and I will never understand why I need to know this if I will not be an engineer. I am a writer not an engineer. I don't want to know y=mx+b or need to know it. In 3 weeks, if I don't pass algebra, I will not have a degree. I did what I had to. I told my sons that I would be willing to pay them $1,000 each if they will help me get through algebra. When I was in high school, a hundred years ago, I took algebra. I had just as hard of a time then as I do now. So much that the algebra teacher told me that the only way he would pass me is if I promised him I would never take another algebra class again. He's probably dead now so I think I am safe. So after 18 months, I am in the last of my required courses. One ends on March 6 and the last one (algebra) ends on March 20. It is so worth it to me to get through this to get the degree but I will never Y=mx+b in my life. Have you ever? It seems silly but I have illusions of what I plan to do after I get this degree and it has nothing to do with algebra
  1. I want to read something I am not required to read.
  2. I want to clean my house.
  3. I want to make a dress. I use to sew and hope to do so again.
  4. I want to go out for dinner on Friday nights and not worrying about my next assignment.
To celebrate my accomplishment, I booked a weekend in New York City for March 20 (great deal), and my Vancouver ski trip for April 8. So, I have to pass this course. In the meantime, if you know what Y = mx+b means, let me know. Otherwise, pray for me.

4 comments:

jen said...

I so totally agree! Other than addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, math has no application in my life. I suffered through two years of algebra in high school and opted to take two semesters of logic in college rather than the math requirement. I almost failed that. Hmm--what does that say about my brain? As far as mental discipline, I got much more out of 2 years of Latin and diagramming sentences. I have no interest in sudoku, but love crosswords. For most of us aren't communications skills more important than nerd skills? Not to put down nerds. I know we need them, but I think many of us will do just fine without knowing if x=whatever.

Ginny said...

Brother racoon!!

Christine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christine said...

y=mx+b? well that obviously equals b+xm=y.