Competitive math? What's that? It's kind of like Mathletes. But not quite. As a good friend of mine states,"Everyone else in the class thinks it's hard because they don't do math... as a sport." Essentially, that's what it is; competitive math is doing math as a sport.
That sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, not quite. I've been to math summer camps for the past two years and I do admit to do math "as a sport."
I get it. Math people are "freaks" and "nerdy." Actually, they aren't. And trust me, from real experience, over the short course of two or three weeks, I've met closer friends than I had in 3 years of middle school. (I'm a freshman in high school now.) And I'm here to prove it to you. But first, what do you imagine when I say,"Mathletes."
Alright so now I'm going to make a list of the types of people I met. I think that we need to accept how multidimensional these people are; there's more to them than the math that they do.
1) I've met quite a few math people who have abs. A very sculpted set at that. Yes, they know who Pitbull is. And they are fond of 2 chainz.
2) Math girls are gorgeous. I'm serious. They're fun and fashionable and gorgeous. As in shop on ModCloth during class.
3) Sure, I've met some of your typical math nerds. You know, Dixon Ticonderoga yellow pencils in a neat box, messy hair, glasses, short, "The answer is two million three hundred ninety million thousand gazillion." I have, but there aren't too much of those.
The point is, I think that we as a culture and as a society depict "nerds" in an unhealthy manner. I think that people who do pursue STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) are gong to be noticeably looked upon as a stereotype. I remember my first math camp, I came into my dorm expecting a bunch of quiet nerdy girls lost in their books or something like that. Was I surprised! My findings?
Roomate 1) *Brings 21 pairs of shoes to camp*
Roomate 2) *Is very much like a mother/very mature*
Roomate 3) *Is super good at color guard*
Roomate 4) *OMG Harry Potter!*
I've grown to love these girls very much. The point of this is to show people that math nerds have personalities! And society ingrains these stereotypes about them that seep into our brain. I think we can erase that. Because there are so many more people with colorful personalities who carry the label "MATH NERD" everywhere. The point is, the only thing that differentiates these people is that they are super smart and they like math.
That sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, not quite. I've been to math summer camps for the past two years and I do admit to do math "as a sport."
I get it. Math people are "freaks" and "nerdy." Actually, they aren't. And trust me, from real experience, over the short course of two or three weeks, I've met closer friends than I had in 3 years of middle school. (I'm a freshman in high school now.) And I'm here to prove it to you. But first, what do you imagine when I say,"Mathletes."
Alright so now I'm going to make a list of the types of people I met. I think that we need to accept how multidimensional these people are; there's more to them than the math that they do.
1) I've met quite a few math people who have abs. A very sculpted set at that. Yes, they know who Pitbull is. And they are fond of 2 chainz.
2) Math girls are gorgeous. I'm serious. They're fun and fashionable and gorgeous. As in shop on ModCloth during class.
3) Sure, I've met some of your typical math nerds. You know, Dixon Ticonderoga yellow pencils in a neat box, messy hair, glasses, short, "The answer is two million three hundred ninety million thousand gazillion." I have, but there aren't too much of those.
The point is, I think that we as a culture and as a society depict "nerds" in an unhealthy manner. I think that people who do pursue STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) are gong to be noticeably looked upon as a stereotype. I remember my first math camp, I came into my dorm expecting a bunch of quiet nerdy girls lost in their books or something like that. Was I surprised! My findings?
Roomate 1) *Brings 21 pairs of shoes to camp*
Roomate 2) *Is very much like a mother/very mature*
Roomate 3) *Is super good at color guard*
Roomate 4) *OMG Harry Potter!*
I've grown to love these girls very much. The point of this is to show people that math nerds have personalities! And society ingrains these stereotypes about them that seep into our brain. I think we can erase that. Because there are so many more people with colorful personalities who carry the label "MATH NERD" everywhere. The point is, the only thing that differentiates these people is that they are super smart and they like math.
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