Incontrovertibly, life is a gift. A precious one. Everyone is indeed blessed for having been given this immensely valuable existence. However, not everyone seems to exhibit gratitude and manifest much appreciation for this. Oftentimes, most people take this with absolute disregard not realizing its essence. Some seemingly focus on how intricate life is and loathe it for its extreme complexities. There are even instances where people end their lives due to failure or incapability to deal with all the complexities like when faced with adversities and misfortune, inflicting abyss of despair among them. While it is true that it is innate among human beings to be resilient and courageous, there still are a few who just can hardly surmount obstacles and put up with all the troubles, sufferings and miseries. This may eventually lead them to develop ill take towards life. Living can ultimately be a strenuous activity as life is full of challenges and uncertainties. Life is conspicuously a complex field of endeavour.
As I contemplate on life and its relatively unfathomable construct and aspects, a certain thought crossed my mind. A thought about another thing that is also regarded by most, if not by all, as complex, extremely challenging and too difficult to comprehend. One thing where many people had much struggles with – Mathematics. The subject which I teach. As an educator, a Mathematics teacher in particular, I believe Mathematics is somehow similar to life in many ways. Both of them require patience, hard work, perseverance and passion. Just like in life, many people also experience struggles, failures and difficulties in Mathematics. There have been cases where people develop negative attitude towards the subject. This may be attributed to the fact that they have not so good experiences with it. The complexities and depth of concepts of Mathematics may have been too much for them to process and assimilate. Due to this, they tend to withdraw themselves from the process and eventually give up on the subject thinking that it is impossible for them to perform decently and do well in it. Fear of failure comes into play and prevents them to at least try and attempt to learn Math concepts and principles and be able to apply them in solving problems. It is as if failure will diminish their esteem or worth. But just like in life, where we have to face our fears, the same thing goes for Mathematics. We need to deal with our fears.
It will help a lot if we start with recognizing the importance of a certain thing. We know too well that life is important enough and each battle in life deserves a fight well fought. Upon recognizing importance, we manage to draw a great deal of motivation. We need to do the same in our battles in Mathematics. We have to recognize the importance of Mathematics. It is not merely a subject in which every student needs to pass. It is way more than that. It is far beyond just a procedural routine of solving unlike most people think. It is what develops and sustains our critical and analytical thinking skills. It is indispensable for these skills may be utilized in real life situations. Once we get to acknowledge the importance of Mathematics, we may get the necessary drive to persevere and work really hard. Patience will be a key factor. On the verge of giving up, just keep in mind, stopping in the middle of the race never works. Quitting only exacerbates situations, so it should never be an option. It is imperative that we exert constant effort. We need to ensure that this effort never gets halted by anything in order to succeed. We may not even realize that along the track, we have already developed passion in it. This passion, as a cogent force, will enable us to eventually reach the finish line.
Challenges both in life and Mathematics just toughen us and bring out the best in us all. The idea of success will never be vague if we know our battles and discern the humongous worth of winning them. Let us all win our battles in life and in Mathematics.