Personal Narrative: The Multiplication Queen

Mathematics captured my interest as early as primary school. Also referred to as ′′intellectual gymnastics,′′ mathematics became my subject of focus as I consistently secured excellent

I truly find joy in doing multiple math problems one after another using strict formulas, because once I know how it’s done, I’ll never forget it. I, unfortunately, did not get that opportunity as well as I should have during these last two years of school. My grades first started to dwindle down slowly when I got diagnosed with pneumonia and I missed a lot of days and class time instruction. What made everything even worse was when my mother underwent spine surgery and tragically faced life threatening complications, she was helpless. i was the only one to be there to take care of her and drive her to her doctors appointments, do the grocery shopping, cleaning, and working for myself all together. One thing on top of the other, made getting caught up in class seem impossible, I would get further behind before I was even au fait with my missing assignments. Thankfully, I had very accommodating teachers and faculty members who were more than willing to work with me to help see me succeed. The one person I owe the greatest homage and endless gratitude towards is for my administrator Trey Sirman. He helped me the most to get me to a point where I could finally be prolific in my

For the past three years of my high school career, and now my fourth, I have made it an obligation to continually expand my horizons in regards to math; when I cannot fully grasp an idea or concept, rather than giving up, I relentlessly pursue the idea until it is understood. During freshman year, math did not come easily to me. I was forced to go in early some days because, simply, I did not comprehend the concepts. However, taking initiative with my school work, and constantly working through problems that were difficult can be deemed one of the best decisions I have made. Although my final grade may not have been an

Being the oldest of four children, it was always hard me to learn things fast. My parents weren’t able to help me with schoolwork because they both dropped out of school at a very young age. As I entered high school, I was terrified of all the hard classes I would be taking. Although I am not the best in every subject, a topic in which I have excelled in is Mathematics.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

My passion for mathematics was fixed at the age of ten, on the morning that my mathematics teacher told I would be sitting the Junior Maths Challenge, 'as practice for when you are older'. As I nervously started to answer the questions, a whole world began to open before me. I revelled in the problem solving, answering questions of a nature I had not seen before. My teachers were delighted when I emerged from the exam hungry for more. Since then I have consistently demonstrated my aptitude, achieving gold awards through to senior level, and scoring highly in the European Kangaroo.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

We played a soccer game yesterday against Buhler, we beat them 5-1 our first win of the season. Unfortunately I got injured within like 5 minutes of the game, I sprained my ankle and it hurt really bad so I had to go out of the game for a little bit so the coach could wrap my ankle. After about 5 minutes of walking on it I started getting used to the pain. So the coach asked me if I was good to play, so I said yes. I ended up going back in with about 30 minutes left, so when I went back in coach put me as the striker which is the attacking position. Their team wasn’t so good so I ended up running a bunch because I’m fast and can produce chances. I got a couple of chances to score but didn’t get a goal, Juan Castillo got a goal and that basically ended the half. At half

Having always excelled in math and math related content in class, this often left me feeling board and unchallenged, however after being reintroduced to a challenge and having to work for something, my love for math was reignited. Now there was someone who was going to ensure I would learn, sitting in class just waiting for the assignment

The benefits and opportunities to embrace engineering far outweigh the difficulties in the process, but despite this, my pure love for mathematics has been the major contributor to my ambitions. From a young age, I found math incredibly enjoyable. The order and consistency found through something as simple as the order of operations served as a driving force to my curiosity and dedication to the subject. As the mathematical concepts intensified, I was able to adequately keep up and enjoy the journey along the way. While signing up for my senior year classes, the decision to take calculus was made easily. While speaking with the instructor, Yvonne Sebastian, I discovered that her love for math was derived from similar feelings. In an interview with Sebastian, she stated, “Math is a beautiful thing. Numbers are incredibly simple, but they can be used to calculate very complex scenarios. No matter how difficult a problem may seem, there is always a solution, an answer that can be found and understood through the power of math” (Y. Sebastian, personal communication, February 14, 2017). Interacting with a teacher who understood to a great level of degree my similar feelings regarding math has been an incredible motivator in my desire to pursue a career which incorporates mathematics frequently. For any individual to be happy with their occupation, I would argue that they must experience a desire to progress

Of course the norm for me is that of any citizen living in zone three.

As a mathematics major, the concept that most people overlook is that I did not choose to study mathematics because I do well at it; I chose to study mathematics because it makes me smarter. In fact, all throughout junior high and high school I was in remedial mathematics classes and worse, I did not even place into a freshman year mathematics class in high school. I had to re-take 8th grade mathematics. However, something about mathematics excited me. Maybe it was the fact that mathematics never came easy to me and I wanted to prove to myself that not only could I pass mathematics classes, I could actually understand and excel at them. For me, mathematics is not about the arbitrary numbers, trivial solutions, meaningless formulas, or repetitive computation: it is about the progress of knowledge and human understanding.

I love math because it can get so complicated at times and then get simplified to just a small multiplication problem. I remember when I first learned the order of operation song in fifth grade. All of my classmate's jaws dropped when Mrs. Parmelee first wrote the equation on the board. It was the longest equation I had ever seen and now I understood how to simplify it. Also, right before you learn a new skill and you think “This is impossible, how

Maths is ubiquitous in our lives, but depending on the learning received as a child it could inspire or frighten. If a child has a negative experience in mathematics, that experience has the ability to affect his/her attitude toward mathematics as an adult. Solso (2009) explains that math has the ability to confuse, frighten, and frustrate learners of all ages; Math also has the ability to inspire, encourage and achieve. Almost all daily activities include some form of mathematical procedure, whether people are aware of it or not. Possessing a solid learning foundation for math is vital to ensure a lifelong understanding of math. This essay will discuss why it is crucial to develop in children the ability to tackle problems with initiative and confidence (Anghileri, 2006, p. 2) and why mathematics has changed from careful rehearsal of standard procedures to a focus on mathematical thinking and communication to prepare them for the world of tomorrow (Anghileri).