-Submitted by 2811-

Math 1

Have You Math Ted?

Mathematics is something that I haven’t hated. I either love it or sometimes I become apathetic
towards it. Well, sometimes I can’t cope up with the stress that had been connected to it but I never hated
it. Since I was a child and math was introduced to me, I always had this feeling of excitement and
something more that interests me. Math is actually fun even if it became ‘harder’ with adding letters and
more symbols or operations and new formulas will be encountered.

I have a lot of interesting stories with mathematics and how it influenced my life but the time for
me is not enough and the page’s dimension is not enough to contain all of it, and actually I just have some
more academic related works. But in serious sense, math is really a big part of our lives. I am always in
admiration of math especially when it is related to something that is so common that I seldom notice
them. And to take note, my story with math is something full of life, adventure and comedy and of course,
it is a love story. I love it but I am not sure with my feelings and I have a doubt that it is an unrequited
love. See? Been there, done that.

I am an Education student, a dream that I always had since I was in elementary – while enjoying
getting-to-know with math where I am too confident to sleep during the math class because it’s something
basic for me or I already reviewed it for a math contest. In the first semester, I had plans of Majoring in
Mathematics, because in reality I haven’t decided about it yet and I thought the one I liked is isn’t
available in the college. Also, it was influenced with my scholarship because they only offer it when it is
under English, Science or Math. I told them that I haven’t decided between the Math and Science but
when contract signing came, they already stated that I will major in Mathematics, so I just rode with the
flow. I defended my decision in Majoring in Mathematics that I dreamt of advocating responsible
teaching particularly in Math because I didn’t have a good experience with it in my high school days. I
decided that if I am going to be a teacher of a student, I want him/her to enjoy Mathematics, to understand
it, see its worth, and share that optimistic point with others. I dreamt that maybe I will be able to relay my
learnings in Mathematics and in return, learn from my students too in this journey. I wanted not to be like
my past teachers so I wanted to use effective pedagogy towards my students if ever.

However, I felt that being a Math Major isn’t just for me. I want to try new things – and I
discovered that my first choice is available – but I still love it even though I didn’t chose it. I am aware
that I am really not that good in Mathematics and how can I teach something that I haven’t mastered or
not very familiar as well. Maybe I can do more with Math but it should take a lot of effort and this doesn’t
end there. I honestly say that I’ve taken Math for granted in my basic education which should be my
foundation. However, I am happy that I got to be in University of the Philippines because I loved Math
more than I did before – because it was actually gradually astray – even though I don’t understand it
sometimes, I try to. And this positive feeling with math is my axiom in life – I consider it because the
proofs are indirect.

Maybe I didn’t end up with Math but I do hope that I will come back to it in another way, in
another time, in another perfect opportunity where I can show my true feelings regarding math.