Don't Take Shortcuts

We were both sliding down our forties and slamming into our fifth decade of life and attending college at night. She for an engineering degree and me for art. We lived together and we're best friends. She a Type A personality and me, the slovenly carefree artist type. The good part was, we were closer than siblings. Our backgrounds were similar. Our religious and political beliefs were the same, and we both loved food. Oh yeah, neither of us smoked or drank and both loved cats. 

She was naturally good at math and doing well with her studies. I was having a good time making art.  There was just one problem. I had to pass one Alegbra class before I could get my degree. Doesn't sound so bad. At least I didn't think so the first couple of times I tried the class. I dropped out each time before it dinged my A average.

After much soul searching and advise from my friend, it was decided that I would finish all my art classes before attempting the Alegbra class again. That put the pain off for another year.

When that fateful semester arrived, I  chose a self paced class. The first couple weeks consisted of  review.  Okay, maybe it won't be so bad.

Chapter Five arrives with simple Alegbra problems. No problem, I can do this. The week goes by and I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Chapter Six appears and I'm a deer caught in headlights. Being the stubborn person I am, I didn't   ask for help. I struggled, made mistakes then struggled somemore.

Friend came over to the desk when she heard the muddering  and sees my pain.

"Want some help?"

"I can't believe I  can't get this."

"That's your problem. You've  already defeated yourself by saying you can't. Let's see what we can do to make this easier on you."

She sat next to me and watched me work for an hour without speaking.  For her that was a chore.

"Here's what you are doing. You are skipping steps in the process. You can't do that in math. There is a logical order to things and if you skip a step, the answer will almost always be wrong. What you need to do is this, on every sheet of paper and every page of your workbook, write, "DON'T TAKE SHORTCUTS". Try that and see if it helps. And I don't want to hear you say you can't  do this. You can and we will get you through this."

After a break, I went back to studying with my new direction,  it still wasn't easy, but it was coming together. I think I actually understood what I was doing after awhile. It still took several hours of study each night, but I passed my final and got my degree. I was so proud. I just wished my mother had lived long enough to have seen it.