Xenia Hernandez

Key 129C – 014

Chapter One
7 (x-2) = 3 (x-4) --> 7x – 14 = 3x + 12
As soon as I walked into class, I knew where I was going to sit. Third row, fourth seat
down, next to Maquela, and in front of Austin. It was routine. I sat, grabbed my homework, and
looked to the front of the room where Mr. Pheiff was waiting to teach. It was quiet and calm.
From the start of freshman year, math was my best and easiest subject. Unlike everything else
in my life, there was no complications and no interpretation. There was just hard facts. You
either got it right or you didn’t. I loved it.
Mr. Pheiff was known for his teaching, and from our first lesson I was hooked. I had
always been good at math, but with Mr. Pheiff’s help I knew almost instantly what to do for
each problem. I knew the formulas by heart, the steps, and even what all the weird symbols
were. Foremost, math is consistent. You begin with an unsolved problem, a set of formulas to
perform in order to solve it, and, in the end, a solution. One of my strengths is also consistency.
In math, I don’t have to think about “interpreting the problem” correctly or even agree if it’s a
problem. I’ve always found it calming and straightforward. There’s no thought to it and literally
almost anyone can become good at math. In reading, at least in my opinion, it is extremely hard
for someone to understand basic ideas and hidden meaning for a reading without a dedicated
background of other famous, important books and documents. Moreover, reading and writing
is about thinking outside the box, and creativity is not a concept that you can teach.
Additionally, being deliberate is one of the key behaviors in math; and therefore, one of
my greatest strengths. There’s almost always a point where you and your friend have different
viewpoints on which formula to use. You have to pick a formula and stick to it, or you could end
with an answer that is immensely wrong. You choose carefully and you have to think of every
possible outcome before you even put your pencil to the paper. During these tense moments,
it’s almost a thrill to me to decide which one to choose. But, in those moments, I always felt like
I couldn’t be wrong because I had studied and understood the lesson so well. Often times, this
proved to be the case and I could happily gloat about my accomplishments to my peers.
 Tying into being deliberative, I am also analytical. I’m constantly telling people to prove
their points and becoming captivated by their explanations. I love to analyze why people
choose their paths and how that will affect their future. On a much smaller scale, math class
allowed me to start to analyze each person’s personalities based on their simple explanation of
why they chose that formula, or why they chose that method of solving it. For example, if
someone chose a formula that had three steps but was less accurate. I could make an
assumption that they are more focused on getting their problems done as fast as possible. Also,
if someone chose to carefully write out each answer after performing a formula, then I could
deduce that they were more of a visual thinker and they liked to see each careful step in order
to make sure it was right.
Over the course of freshman year, I would often hear my heart pound, feel the sweat on
my brow, and smell the numerous erased mistakes from dozens of pencils as time seemed to
fly by. I know how that sounds, but math class was one of the only classes where I didn’t stare
at the clock and count the seconds until the end. I knew how to do everything and there was a
finite amount of problems to do. At the end, I would feel this overwhelming sense of
accomplishment, which brings me to my next strength “achiever”. In the achiever description, it
describes how I’m always dissatisfied if I don’t achieve something tangible every day. Finishing
a math assignment was one of the most satisfying parts of my day. I could see that I finished it,
followed the multitude of steps, and got a solution. Not to mention that I was one of the top
performing students in an advanced math class with upper class men, so I often felt the most
intelligent during this time.
Once you look deeper into what math is, many people come to the realization that math
is all about looking toward the future. You think about how many hours “Jim” needs to work in
order to have enough money for 13 apples, how many steps you’ll have to do in order to
complete a problem, and even something as simple as how fast you have to each problem in
order to finish the test in 45 minutes. I’m constantly planning every minute of every day in my
head. I see each extraordinary detail until it consumes me, and then I rush forward into the
present where I make it happen. With math, you do the same basic concept but simpler. I have
an obsessive personality and math helps me channel this energy into a productive and
rewarding environment that does nothing but energize my curiosity for more.
My five strengths are consistency, deliberation, achiever, analytical, and futuristic. If you
summed up all my strengths, the main themes would be “guarding” against behaviors I don’t
believe in, believing that people should dig deep and think about their actions (or think about
why an individual chose that action) before performing them, and figuring out the outcome of
your action before you even begin to act. Overall, math ties into these themes very well and
I’ve never felt as close as being my best self then I have in math class.