I'm studying for the GRE, what's your excuse?
At the behest of my adoring public (read: Serena and Serena alone), I've decided to update myself.
1. I've had the same job for 6 consecutive months. Subsequently, I can't remember another 6 month period that made me want to cut a bitch more.
2. As a result, I've decided to go to grad school. With that, I've started studying for the GRE--hence the turgid word choice--and have realized a few things about my so-called blue ribbon public school education.
First of all, I don't even know what a "math" is. I've taken algebra for a collective 5 years (give or take). That's 1/5 of my entire life. Two of those years were in middle school where we focused on some real abstract shit that I'm only now realizing was actually math. The other years were in high school and again in college, because my SAT math scores were so laughably low that they had to make sure I could at least recognize a number if I saw one in the real world. I still have no idea what the quadratic equation is or why we suddenly switched from calling equations numeric sentences. This is as if, in the middle of dinner, someone just swoops in and takes your utensils and replaces them with scissors and glue. What the fuck is glue doing at the dinner table?
Contrarily, the verbal portion of the test is something I'm actually really looking forward to. Thanks to that same blue ribbon education, I really like words, and I really like reading and writing them. I distinctly remember D.E.A.R. time--Drop Everything And Read--when I was in elementary school. At some point every day, we'd all just read. It was amazing. We were mandated to escape into a story. So what if sometimes I re-read the same book for a month and a half. Point is, I was taught to love reading. And I do.
I wonder why I was never taught to love math/science in the same way. It's not because I don't care to love it - I do. I watched Star Trek growing up and wanted nothing more than to one day, be able to wear the same visor as Jordy (until my dad explained that Jordy wore that visor because he was blind and I saw his creepy all-white eyes - heartbreaking disappointment followed immediately thereafter). And now, as a 25 year-old, I watch The Big Bang Theory religiously and feel a real sense of embarrassing camaraderie with those geeky, math and science-inclined, weird little men.
I want to understand the world in logical, mathematical terms, but I don't. Instead, I'm pretty sure that anything with a square root is made up and if it takes more than a few tries to understand a word problem, I generally choose multiple choice answer B.
I read an article in the Wall Street Journal called, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html and while I kind of think that's a dick thing to assert, I have to say the author made some decent points.
Her whole thesis was that Western parents are so concerned with their kids' self esteem that they essentially enable them to squander their potential. I don't mean to say my parents did that - they didn't - but I think the reason I have the strengths I do is because I was encouraged to hone my abilities in those areas, whereas if I was struggling in an area - let's call that area "math" - I was sort of lumped into a class with other kids who were also not that strong and we were taught as though we weren't going to use it anyway. Sort of like a math-for-non-majors approach, but for the basics, when we all need to develop the same baseline skills, which is the issue. If we were taught the basics in a way that was applicable as "the basics" - and not just basics for more math, which always seemed very abstruse, but for LIFE - I really think I would have more confidence in my abilities.
I don't mean to blame "the system" here. I'm not even sure who I blame. But I dare say that if after 5 years of being taught the same shit over and over and over and over and over (count them, that's 5 over's) again, I still don't get it, that's some bullshit right there.
...
3. It's been a really snowy winter.
4. I think a long distance relationship should be the punishment for some crimes.
5. Obama wants us to win the future, which I understood to mean, wear as many pairs of sweatpants during the weekdays as possible. Thanks to all that snow and my long distance relationship, 2011 is off to a strong start.
More updates and [maybe but you know what, probably not] less bitching to follow.
