StemCo Math

Current Relationship Status with Math: 1,7,10,13...

Mathematics or Math

is one subject that has been following me my entire life.

As soon as I knew my ABCs, I learned to count one, two, three...

I remember back in grade 1 when we learned how to count up by 5s and 10s by doing this silly dance so that we could memorize it better.

I thought I was a math genius in grade 2 as I worked on addition problems in my little booklet. Adding apples and pears, chicken and ducks, and cucumbers and carrots.

Then of course I remember the hot sticky summer of grade 3 when I learned the multiplications table. Me sitting in front of my mother, tears brimming ready to spill over at any second, slowly stammering out numbers 4,5...20...4,6...24...

Fast forward to grade 7 when things started to get a little more difficult. I had just graduated elementary school with big flashing As in math. I aced all the addition and multiplication problems. No problem was too difficult for me.

Or so I thought...

As the number of my age increased with time, so did the difficulty of the math problems. I often found myself stuck on a single problem struggling to solve it. I wracked my brain trying to find the perfect solution. I thought the next year couldn't be harder than the year before and the struggle continued.

However, although I struggled, every time I came across the right answer, I felt a wave of satisfaction, pride, and joy. I started to enjoy the struggle. I enjoyed every moment of struggle I had trying to use different equations and substitute different numbers.

Then the time came. With all the math problems I had solved, I decided to test how really good I was at math. I participated in the 2021 Stemco Mathematics competition. As I looked at the booklet, I found myself pausing every few questions, not sure of the answer. The results reflected my confusion during the exam. I had received the silver award. Of course, Silver wasn't a bad result, yet I had carried so much confidence that I had thought that I would most definitely earn the gold award. My pride was wounded yet I was motivated even more than before.

I knew what I had to do. I practiced and practiced, solving question after question. And the time came again, Mathematico 2022. I opened the booklet and looked at the first question. My weeks of practice were not in vain. My hand flew across the paper writing down the answer to each question.

"Beep! Your time is up!"

I had finished - my weeks of hard work in just a few minutes. A few weeks later, came the prize for my hard work - the Gold Award. I have never been so proud of myself. I had found ways to overcome my struggles and receive satisfying results.

Looking back, I can see how much I have grown from a mathematician in grade 7 to the mathematician I am now and I can't help but look forward to the problems I will encounter in the future years.