math is hard, and so is life.
“find x,” my teacher said to me for today’s writing prompt. ‘what does that even mean?’ i wondered. most of the time, finding x is what you do for a math equation. math indicates that x will always be certain. there’s a specific number that says exactly what x is – there’s a specific place on the number line for it. however, x isn’t always just one number. x can be infinite, or x can be multiple numbers depending on the equation. x doesn’t always fit perfectly. finding x can take a lot of steps. it isn’t always one specific thing, and you might need to change your approach on it sometimes. finding x can be like life. . in life, you may think that there is one perfect goal or approach to something. but that’s not always the case. you may try a lot of different things and still not find the thing you like. there are a lot of different ways to find x, and each yields a different answer. just like there is not always a number for x, there is not always one goal to strive for in life.
when you calculate an equation, you may end up doing something that you shouldn’t have done. it’s the same with life. to some extent, both can be erased, but you still must learn from your mistakes. last year, i took geometry. i was daunted with a really difficult homework packet where we had to pretend to make our way through a store using a map. we had to use the distance formula and pythagorean theorem. i made so many mistakes. i would plug in the wrong numbers and use the pythagorean theorem where i should’ve used the distance formula. it took me almost an hour just to find an answer that worked. the way i got to the answer was by seeing what didn’t work. i messed up, and i realized what not to do so i could find out what i should have been doing. i almost gave up halfway, telling myself finding the solution didn’t really matter. i was glad i didn’t though, because we ended up having a test that asked the same question. the same thing tends to happen in life: you mess up, and you realize what is right and wrong. making a mistake once, and still continuing to try to better it always helps you in the future. once you get to a happy point in your life, it’s a great feeling – a reward even – and you’re glad you didn’t give up. it’s the same with math – you find x and you get a good grade for doing so, or you finally start to understand it and utilize what you learned in the future. i believe life is about finding your x – your reward, what you have been looking for. it may be confusing, and x may be multiple things, but one day, you’ll find your x. and along the way, you’ll learn from your mistakes.
math is hard, and so is life. but that doesn’t mean either aren’t worth doing.
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