Stop Accepting. Start Changing.

I have always despised math.

In fact, I nearly didn’t graduate high school because of it.

I was the kid who asked, “When will I ever have to use this?”

And I would usually get the same response.

“It’s not about learning every formula and concept, it’s about learning how to approach a problem and then having the guts and know-how to solve it.”

This was great and all but I would’ve rather learned problem solving skills by solving sudokus by the pool.



Ever since I was a kid I have been told that the math side of my brain just, fails. However, I managed to get by until my senior year of high school.

My senior year I took trigonometry and it nearly destroyed my chance of graduating. I had the second lowest grade in the class. I worked with my teacher and was very grateful that they ended up passing me.

At the end of the year I came up with this formula:

Math + Senioritis = Endless frustrating nights of banging my head against the wall, wishing math would grow up and solve its own problems^2



I thought after graduating high school, all my math problems would finally be solved.

Man, was I wrong.

I started college and my first semester I took Algebra.

I got off to a rocky start and it didn’t help that my professor couldn’t speak English very well.

By the 4th week I had an F in the class.

I ended up dropping it and telling myself that I would take it later.



Well that “later” ended up being this semester.



Since my first semester I have transfered schools and changed my living arrangements.

But besides the physical changes, I have had some mental changes as well.

I asked myself:

Why have I been letting others tell me what I’m good at?

What’s stopping me from getting an A in math?

Why am I accepting things instead of changing them?



I got tired of failing and decided to do something about it.

I am currently taking Algebra again this semester and guess what?

I have an A in the class.

I got sick of accepting the fact that I would never do well at math and I decided to change it.

I started studying, doing all the work, taking notes, showing up to every class, etc.

The more I worked at it, the better I became and the more my mindset changed.

So I came up with a couple new formulas:

Failure + Acceptance = More Failure

Failure + Refusal = BIG Change

Now those are definitely problems I can solve.

So I encourage you all today to reevaluate all of the things that you think you are not good at. Define why you think this way and do not accept failure as an option. In fact, refuse failure and do not let anyone define who you are. You can do the unthinkable if you just work hard and work smart.