Happy Pi Day!

Hello everyone! Depending on how you denote today's date, today was either a pretty standard, or one that stands out above others mathematically. Yes, it's Pi Day and with it being 2015, we can find a time where we represent more of pi accurately - 3/14/15 9:26:53... I remember seeing things online regarding today while I was in college. "Get excited because March 14th, 2015 is going to be epic. Why?" Here, let me find the image I'm thinking of.

Had to riffle through some choral programs and hastily written Physics notes, but I found it.

I did appreciate that it was Saturday because I could go to Gnome Games today for tabletop. Plus, there may have been pie involved.

I don't know if I've ever talked about it on the blog, but my undergrad degree is in mathematics. When I tell someone this in person, I usually get a response along the lines of "Wow, you must be really smart" or "Better you than me because I was terrible at math". Typically, I'll politely laugh and continue the conversation, but I'm always a little confused. I mean, yeah, I took a number of challenging math classes, but it seems like mathematics is singled out as this subject that's impossible to understand. I personally admire my college friends who had majors like Chemical Engineering, and Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, because I know they are very talented and intelligent people.

So, as you can probably assume by this point, I finished my math degree and jumped into Student Affairs. I do think my math background helped me connect with some of the students at the Missouri Academy, particularly when I was new. Even though I haven't had to examine a dynamical system* or map out a timetable for futures & options**, I think the math background helped strengthen my critical thinking skills. Yeah, there are hiccups because issues in Student Affairs don't have a clear solution to find one value for x, but I've also been able to balance different factors to see how it affects a situation.

This is less technical, but I see many areas of math*** as puzzles to solve. Kind of what I was saying just a sentence ago - I liked seeing how different variables affected a system and finding the proper balance of everything. The homework in some of my favorite classes literally felt like solving puzzles, so it was fun in a way. Even now, my Internet time sink that's not social media is a collection of daily math-based puzzles and stuff.

Do I want to live a life sitting in a cubicle crunching numbers? No, that's why I changed fields when I did. Does my background play a part in how I operate? I think so. Hopefully you got to pull something out of this ramble. In any case, Happy Pi Day (for those that use the month/day/year format)!

* A dynamical system is basically figuring out where an object will be in space at a given time value. It can sound daunting, but it's really not. One of the core concepts of one of my favorite math classes.

** Futures & options are terms for financial agreements to buy or sell things at certain prices at some point in the future. Definitely one of my least favorite math classes.

*** I could be wrong, but I feel that the general perception is that math is math is math. In reality, there are so many different things you can focus on and be a part of your career. The comparison that came to mind is the umbrella of math fields is like the umbrella of types of pasta. Also, math areas/fields. Pun. :P

DFTBA