Something my
father said to me numerous times when I was a
kid.
I was approximately 10 years old, struggling with my
math homework. I was having a hard time to
understand something, and he apparently got
frustrated trying to help me out.
Knowing that he has quite a
temper (and has passed it on to me as well), I'm aware that shouldn't take things he says while
upset that seriously. And since math was the only subject
he was good at as a
child, hoping the same from his children is understandable. Furthermore, a common conception is that one must be either
athletic or
intelligent to succeed in life. And I'm definitely not athletic.
Still...
What if he really meant it?
What if he was right?
Possessing weak
skills with
numbers - or more specifically my lack of
motivation to study the subject -
did almost
destroy my chances at
graduating from
lukio. I still made it, but only to find out that getting in to almost every
Finnish university or a similar
school I'd be interested in requires the
applicant to be a
genius mathematician. Even when the
subject doesn't involve much or any number-crunching at all.
And with no
education, I'll be stuck in
dead end jobs like the one I'm currently in, with no hope for a
raise, let alone a
promotion.
Was he right?
Should I just
kill myself now, instead of wasting
society's resources for the duration of my life as a B-class
human being?
Hell no.
I simply
refuse to
believe that there is neither
hope nor
future for people like myself. Maybe I should make my goal of life to
disprove the
old man's theory.
Then again, why bother? I for one don't measure the
quality of my
existence by
$$$ alone. For 21.5 years, I have been a
happy individual without the big bucks.
Just let me go on being
ignorant.
I'm sure I can
survive.