Thread: When did you first realize you enjoyed math?

In high school (1950's) I found that I was good in math.

One day in Algebra I, our math teacher was out and our principal filled in for him.
He was a stuffy, dignified man and I wondered what he could teach us.
After the basic daily lesson, he showed us the "proof" that 1 = 2.
Well, it blew me away!

Later I found a paperback, "Fun With Mathematics" by Jerome S. Meyer.
It was filled with fascinating facts and fallacies.

Believe it or not, I went to college as a Music major. .I thought I had talent
and thought it was my first love. .Well, I had a lot of fun and flunked myself out.

After a stint in the Marines, I went back to college as a Math major, thinking that
Teaching Math is a good career to "fall back on". .While browsing in the library,
I came across Martin Gardner's book of his articles from Scientific American.
(At the time, there was only that one book.) .I read the book thoroughly several
times, taking notes and sharing the knowledge with my classmates. .(Sad to say,
only a few were enthused about it.)

It was a totally enlightening experience and that was when I discovered that
I truly liked Math. .I wanted to learn more about this fascinating subject.
Since then, I've bought all of Martin Gardner's books and dozens of others which
took me on exciting sideroads of Mathematics.

So I put in 36 years of teaching college-level math and am enjoying my retirement,
hanging out at these math sites. .And I'm still learning ... from other tutors and
from many students.

The journey never ends . . .

I'm 19 so a few (3-4 years ago) when I started realizing the applications it had in the real world.
Plus the fact that I was getting good at it. I don't know, it just seemed like the right thing to do.
Today I'm happy that I made the right choice as for most serious careers so to speak you'll need a sound mathematical grasp (with the exception of law and medicine).
I started thinking 'If I really want to I can make an impact' mostly, and this principle has guided me ever since.

I have always been fascinated by math since I was a child. Each math topic came with a new set of rules, and I enjoyed learning about the various math systems. I remember doing better on my math homework by waking up super early every morning and approaching it with a refreshed mind.

After I got out of the military, I used my Army College Fund for college. I started out as a Computer Science major, and I took the standard round of math classes - Calculus 1, 2, 3, 4, Nat Logs, Diff Eq, but it was taking a Statistics course that changed everything.

The class was Basic Statistics, the professor was very patient and eventually became a mentor to me, and for the first time I felt like I didn’t have to try as hard to learn. As I started to understand the terminology and solving, I then enjoyed the analysis that came afterward.

I chalked up all the computer coding and math courses to experience and changed majors to Information Systems, enrolled in an Advanced Statistics course, same professor, and I never looked back.

I stuck with Statistics when I was in grad school, and it’s still something I enjoy today because I love metrics, numbers, and analyzing. That’s how I discovered this forum, about a year ago, just from doing a search looking for some more information, and learning from it.

Over the years, the one thing I’ve realized about math is its not always fun. It can be hard work, but if you keep at it, it gets better. We all learn math in our unique way, and for me, the learning is something that I value more than anything else.

I enjoyed math since I knew about myself.

I was always willing to go one step further,always thinking that what I know now is not enough.I think that even now.There's so much math to explore and learn,but what's more important to enjoy.I also joined two forums,one being this one here
Both of them helped me a lot in learning new stuff.

I always hated when I see people studying math just because they are going to need it on an exam or something like that.I don't look at math that way.For me it is something that's just waiting to be discovered.

Most of you guys are older and had more experience,so your stories about 'meeting' math are interesting,but still...

I'm glad to see that there are other people around the world sharing the same or greater passion for mathematics as I do,sharing there experience and knowledge to help others learn and grow passion for mathematics.

Stefy