Math can be fun.

Here in America, we take academic skills for granted. People in other states can locate all 50 states and name their capitals, yet in America only a fraction of people can do the same. Math taught in Russia is far more advanced than those taught at the same level in America. I didn't really value math skills until I passed Math 114 at De Anza with an A. That feeling was the best I've felt about a class in a long time. I couldn't depend on my parents to help me with my math homework, they "aren't good at math". I realized I want to be better for my future children. I don't want them to say "my parents aren't good at math," I want them to say "my parents are annoying, but they've always helped me study my math so that I can grasp it." Math 44 has been awesome so far. The class teaches Mathematics that is aimed towards getting you to think critically about situations, which I can say it has done for me. Today my professor gave us a group question.

The question was, if there are n people in a group, how can you prove that at least two people have the same number of friends within said group? There are two possibilities: one person could have 0 friends, and everyone in the group could have one friend within the group. I came up with this: if you have n people and n-1 numbers of friends, the extra person will have to fit into one of the previous numbers.

Confusing? This might help. If there are four people and three flavors of ice cream (Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry), let's assume person one chooses chocolate, person two chooses vanilla, and person three chooses strawberry. Since there are only 3 choices, person four MUST choose C, V, or S, which means there would have to be at least two people choosing the same flavor.

That's the best I can do. My group mates said it was wrong and refuted it, presented their own ideas. We ended up turning in my answer. After our 30min was up, my professor showed us the answer: My answer. Except he said that you could assume that no one has n-1 friends in common and cross that one out, leaving n-2 boxes and still n people, meaning that at least two people would fit into the category of the same number of friends within the group.

Math is a challenge for some people, but it's worth learning.

Honest self-analysis number two

I'm a liar. I don't mean to be, sometimes it just slips out. When I was in 7th grade, I told my teacher that I'd tried Polo before. I asked, "You're not supposed to fall off the horse, are you?" I knew you weren't. I knew what polo was. I have no idea why I lied. I sometimes wonder what percentage of what people say to me is the truth. Am I the only liar? I lied today because my sister insulted me and I became defensive.

I'm also immature and dramatic. 95% of the reason I use twitter is because I know my boyfriend will read it sooner or later. When I'm angry/upset with him, I'll tweet about it because I know he'll read it. Once or twice I made myself cry while leaving him a voicemail to see if it'd make him call me back faster. Boy, was I in for a surprise! He doesn't listen to his voicemails anymore. At least, not the ones from me.

I'm an idiot.

I am horrible at math. And I know people say that who are in Geometry, but I mean I have gone through pre-calculus and still have trouble with basic subtraction. Embarrassing when you work register at your job. One person that made me feel better was my supervisor (did I give him a nickname already?) Dan. Dan and I talked for a little bit and I confessed my shameful secret, I sometimes have to write out subtraction problems to give people the correct change. THANK GOODNESS, he laughed and said he did the same when he was an associate. At least I'm not the only one.

Last but not least, I'm a closet activist. Most times, I don't shave my legs just to put a middle finger to society. The only thing is: It kind of sucks being an activist when you're the only woman in the room with hairy legs.

Okay, this one is last for sure. Sometimes I really dislike myself. Maybe all of this drama is just a side effect of the pill, but it's how I feel sometimes. Hideous. Pimples all over my face, black hairs making normally attractive parts of my body some kind of joke. It's hard to deal with. A little late, but my mom bought me this book named Body Drama. It addresses EVERYTHING that a woman could be concerned with. Literally E-V-E-R-Y T-H-I-N-G. I say "a little late" not to blame my mom, but to wish that I'd found that book sooner. The book depicts nude women at the end. Not in a pornographic way, in an "everyone is beautiful" way. It shows all kinds of women, all skin tones, all body types, it's very empowering.