Math is hard

Don't wait till your last semester to take your last math class. And don't take an online course. It's hard!! And I'm finding, nearly impossible to teach myself math at the age of 28. For real.

So why did I do this? I did have a reason... it just didn't turn out to be a good reason, I guess.

When I started college in 2005, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I got a lot of my generals done, including all but one of my math classes. I got to the point where I needed only one more math class to complete my mathematic requirements for my major. So why did I stop & wait till my final semester to take it and choose to take an online class?

Because i'm an idiot.

No, but It was a stupid move, but like I said, I did have a reason.

The first math class I took as a college student was so hard for me. The professor was old & dry & wasn't very good at adding that extra effort to really teach the concept. I barely passed that class. Just enough to be able to move on to the next required course.

The second math class was taught by a different professor - by far the coolest professor I ever had at UVU, Emilie Berglund. Sadly she doesn't teach at UVU anymore. As the semester began, she met with each student to find out the level of understanding we were at. I remember completely dreading this little get together because I had just basically failed the last math class I was in. To this day, I still remember that meeting & what this professor said to me about math. After seeing that I had barely made it though the previous course and finding out that I had zero confidence in passing this class, she said to me, "Kira, you can get an A in this class, there's no reason you can't, and I will help you, even if we have to meet one on one to make that happen." For the first time in college, I felt a professor really did want me to succeed. She didn't want to just watch me fail and laugh thinking she had won & I had failed, again.

I did, on a number of occasions throughout the semester meet one on one with this professor and she helped me understand, really understand, the concepts to what we were learning. Not only that, but she had a special and very unique way of teaching the course. For the first time in a math class ever, I felt like I could follow the lesson an I knew what was being taught and the best part - I understood it!! It clicked!

I took two classes from this professor & I did very well in both of them... then she left UVU just before I could take my final math class from her...

So there's my reason. So here I sit, my last semester, taking the BYU independent study equivalent course so I can get my diploma in August.

I seriously worked on one problem last night for over an hour till I got the correct answer.

Math is hard. Especially when you're 28 & teaching it to yourself.

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