by Rix Quinn
I won’t forget my first day in geometry class. I tried…but the memory is too painful.
I could grasp algebra because the girl sitting next to me explained how it could solve complicated problems or figure out how long it might take me to go a certain distance at a specific speed.
I learned how a car starting on the West Coast and another starting on the East Coast could travel at the same speed and meet in mid-America. But I never found out why they met there or whether they were related.
But in geometry class, only two lazy guys sat next to me. One slept a lot. The other one used his ruler to carve football shapes on his desk.
Meanwhile, at the chalkboard (this was long ago), the teacher explained that geometry could help us build things that fit together by examining their angles and shapes.
After a few weeks, I was told to buy graph paper to practice drawing angles. I liked that paper, and I colored every other square to create a checkerboard.
Next, we learned to write out problems, develop solutions, and to show proof. “Teacher,” I asked, “why do I need to show proof if I just wrote the answer? Isn’t that proof enough?”
That was not the proof he wanted or what the book required. Fortunately, I could go to our school’s “learning center,” staffed by college math majors.
A young man and woman coached me during lunch period and explained geometry well. It soon became clear that the couple found each other acute, and that after class, they both angled for romance.
After my painful start in geometry, I finally squeaked by with a solid D-minus. I never approached the perimeter of another math class.
What about those two romantic tutors? They broke up, and each started dating a different math major. This divided the first couple, but multiplied the date events.
Soon, both new couples announced wedding plans. For me, this added up to two wedding invitations, two free meals at the receptions, and one job offer for the summer.
At that age, those were all positive numbers for me.
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