True story…
“Why do you want to be a mathematician?” Mom said, “You can’t make any money from that.”
I remained silent while my head receded into daydream mode, imagining I was one of my Calculus professor’s research assistants, on a boat, sailing to Arctic and Antarctic to study glaciers and weather patterns using complex mathematics.
I am an explorer, how could mom not see that? I don’t want to be sitting behind a desk. I want to go explore and do math and…
Alas, it’s just a dream and let’s face it, mom would burst that bubble in an instant. *sigh*
(100 words)
A little back story: Strangely to say, I love math. It was my best subject in school, all the way up to college. At one time, I wanted to be a mathematician but I was hesitant because like my mom, I thought job opportunities would be scarce in this field but then, my Calculus professor showed the class a bunch of pictures of him taking a group of his research students on a boat to study climate change, it opened my eyes to see the wonderful opportunities in the world of a mathematician.
Alas, like I wrote, mom busted that bubble in an instant.
This is Another Story 
Sooo… you didn’t ever get to do research? That is sad 😦
But parents have a way of bursting that bubble for sure… mine did too.
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Unfortunately not.
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I have a mathematics degree. My opinion. there are few things that can lead in as many divergent directions…
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From experience, there are many career paths that can be associated with one major.
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Yep. Often people just to see that you have a degree.
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Unfortunately…
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Whatever you do I am sure you are good at it. I told my daughters that they can be anything they want to be. Mostly because I didn’t want the conversation (I know a bit of a coward really). They are both doing well – one a civil engineer the other a career in Bio-Science – whatever that is.
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I wish I have an open-minded parent. Though I work with numbers (kinda have to being in finance), I still wish I had explored the Math major all those years ago.
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Keep smiling.
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Aww… this was a sad little story. Hopefully you’ve been able to realize a little bit of the dream? (I’m pretty lousy at math so I’ll reach out if I should encounter a challenging match problem!)
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Maybe just the math part since I ended up in finance but not one bit of the adventurous explorer part.
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a great adventurous story.
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Thanks.
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Interesting story.
“Dear Mom, I am changing my major to Archeology and Paleo-biology.”
Well done.
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😄😄😄 Thank you.
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You’re welcome.
I had an acquaintance once who had his Ph. D. in Theoretical Mathematics. I asked him why the real thing wasn’t good enough. 🙂
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😀 😀 😀
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I hope she gets to fulfill her dream! Such an inspiring story.
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Thanks. 🙂
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