Grade 4, Friday, 1:47PM-
I remember my elementary school teacher
Talking about how a line is a sequence
Of infinite points,
I remember thinking back to our refrigerator at home,
And all the little notes stuck on it.
I remember thinking of my mother's favourite quote on one of those sticky notes-
A line is a dot that went for a walk.
We had homework that weekend and a test on Monday,
On the definition of squares and of rectangles, of triangles, and of course,
Of lines.
On Monday morning, when my elementary school teacher asked me
To define a line,
I could only think of the note on the fridge at home.
I failed that test.
Grade 9, Wednesday, 9:13AM-
Suddenly I'm in high school and despite having learnt geometry for the past four years,
I could not seem to remember what arcs and segments were.
I could only play word association games in my head,
Thinking from an arc of a circle to an arc in France,
From arcs in France to schools in France to holidays on Wednesdays in schools in France.
I remember wishing that day was a holiday.
I remember failing my next test in geometry.
Grade 11, Monday, 11:39AM-
We've moved on from lines and circles now;
We've reached theorems.
We're learning about Pythagoras and Thales,
And I can't seem to stop thinking about exotic vacations in Greece and Turkey.
I remember thinking back even then,
To grade 9,
And realising that geometry has always,
Always,
Always,
Made me wish for holidays.
I failed my test in geometry, again.
Now, 7:56PM-
As I write this, I realise that geometry does make sense after all.
I remember my elementary school teacher, Telling me that a line is infinite.
This definition of a line makes more sense to me now,
Since at home I learnt that a line
Is a dot that went for a walk,
And I learnt at school that a line is infinite.
I connect these dots,
And realise that you and I, darling,
We are the dots that went for a walk,
And you and I, darling,
Are infinite.
I remember thinking that I like a circle,
With zero displacement,
Having never been to these exotic locations,
And then,
I remember thinking that I am less soft curves, and more sharp edges.
Maybe I'm not a circle after all.
But now,
It makes sense to me now-
Even the curves of a circle come with the sharp edges of it's arcs.
Just because I have rough edges,
Doesn't mean I don't have soft arcs.
I remember wishing for exotic vacations in Greece and Turkey,
And I wonder now, how it would be
To travel these countries
With your soft edges complementing mine.
And then,
At the end of this thesis,
I think about you.
I've reached an inference-
You are a test
In this dreaded subject,
With your edges and infinities,
And I know now,
That I haven't really failed every test in geometry.
