A Mother's Intuition by Ariel

A Mother's Intuition by Ariel - March 2014 Scholarship Essay

Before this became a great achievement, I once viewed this as a nemesis: Mathematics. The word in itself made me cringe and would change my entire demeanor for that moment. I knew that there was no way to get around having to take this subject and to pass it, but fear would grip me and cause me to just freeze up. I spent many days crying and getting more and more frustrated at this subject. When I got to Algebra, with its letters used as numbers, I was now even more confused and more fearful. I had to work extra hard, crying while doing the work and then one day my mom came to me and said, “You struggle in this subject because you won’t let your guard down to allow what math is trying to do in and for you, that you may accomplish and succeed in every area of your life”.

You see math was set out to build critical thinking skills in me, discipline, logical thinking, putting and keeping things in order, looking beyond what was in front of me, and most importantly, it helped me to understand who I was as a person. Once I understood all of this, I took on math in a different way – a different light. It became not something that was trying to harm me and to cause me to fail and not be able to attend college, but it was the very thing that catapulted me into succeeding greatly in other areas of my life. I learned how to tackle things head on and to move from a place of fear to a place of courage. I begin to understand that that which gave me difficulties was trying to achieve other things in me as a person. I went from getting low C’s to B’s and getting through all of the math requirements necessary to be accepted into my first choice of college.

The skills that I have acquired from mathematics, I have used in other areas of my life and in other subjects. You see mathematics for me isn’t just about adding and subtracting or multiplying and dividing, it’s about digging deeper and being clear and concrete on matters. If I had to do this all over again, I would because of the great value of what I have learned and how it has allowed me to succeed not only academically, but in every area of my life: mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – priceless.