Math is like a dance. There are rules and there's room for freedom to interpret. There are styles, and there are conventions. Math gives us a way to quantify the world around us and allows us to envision and predict it. To quote one of my teachers, "Math is the universal language." It is the language in which we talk with the universe. In most cases for math, you either get an accurate answer or you need more information/knowledge/techniques/review (aka wrong answers stem from error or inadequate understanding). You can always learn more based on basic concepts that lead to more advanced concepts that lead to doctorate concepts. The concepts in math are always so abstract when starting but then become secondhand eventually. I think that's what I like most about it. For instance, when starting algebra 1, it was very crazy to imagine doing the 'opposite' operation to solve for a variable. Ex: x+1=5, so minus 1 on both sides and you get x=4. But at this point in my life, I think could legitimately do it in my sleep. Turning broad concepts into real-world data makes humans what we are today. It allows us to build buildings that scrape the sky, and computers to compute probabilistic outcomes of micro-interactions! Math shows how the world goes around.

Many memories come to mind when I look back at my experiences at Monroe High. One thing I loved was when we would have a food court and try to resell fast food to our fellow students at lunch. However, my most vivid memory takes me back to my Sophomore Year of High School. It was leaning towards the latter half of the school year, about 2 months before the “day of never returning to school'' happened. I was getting ready for track after school with my friend, J.P. We got into a discussion about chicken nuggets while we were getting ready. We were puzzled why the heck Wendy’s would sell a 50 pack of nuggets for $13, and a 6 pack of nuggets for $5. We quickly whipped out our phones to calculate the true value of the nuggets using the $ to nugget ratio. The 50 pack ratio was $~0.26/nugget and the 6 pack ratio was ~$0.83/nugget. My friend and I were astonished at our findings, we felt that we had to report our findings to someone over this discrepancy. A 50 cent difference per nugget didn’t make sense to us, why would they do such a thing? Why not sell the six pack at the 26 cent per nugget price? It would save customers money and make them happy costing them $1.56 in total compared to the $5 total. We quickly went to someone that always stayed after school for dire questions that needed answering, Miss Oddo. JP and I had Ms. Oddo for the last hour of the day for Math class so we felt that we could gain some insight from her concerning this inequality. We caught her as she was about to leave. JP and I explained our problem and looked to her as she analyzed the situation. After being intrigued and humored at the problem she began to explain that it all boiled down to how Wendy's bet on selling food. She explained that Wendy's knows that by giving you a greater discount as they increase in size, you’re more likely going to buy more chicken nuggets. It’s a win win with you getting cheaper chicken nuggets and them getting more money. She also suggested that we apply this principle when we run our own fast food stand at the school’s food court and see how well it works. After that JP and I felt a little foolish but enlightened. We then proceeded to our track practice knowing that no one else there had the knowledge of chicken nugget sales that we would use to get customers at the next food court. -- Later on, when I was a senior in high school, I was looking to fill a slot in my schedule. I was thinking of filling it with something math related due to my love for the subject and my experience with Ms. Oddo. I asked Ms. Oddo if I could tutor for her. She responded yes and that her only condition was that I work my hardest with the students and not treat it like a blow off class. I agreed and did everything possible to make myself the best I could be for the students. So much so that I became known as one of her best tutors ever. With my experiences in tutoring it made me more confident to take up soccer coaching for middle schoolers and makes me less hesitant to help others. I will never forget Ms. Oddo and the contribution she made to my life.