I bounced another check last week. This is an on-going problem for me, not because I’m trying to be brimful of fail, but because I am, as I’ve always described it, math challenged. I can add up a column of numbers ten times and come up with ten different answers. And, yes, that’s while using a calculator. It’s a gift, I tell ya’, a gift I’d like to return to sender, CoD, thankyouverymuch.
I’ve sucked at math for as long as I’ve been aware there was such a thing as numbers. I’ve been called stupid by various teachers and lazy by others. It took me three attempts to pass basic college math. *Three*. It wasn’t that the material was exceptionally difficult, and it wasn’t that I didn’t study or do my homework. I truly tried. I tried so hard that I just wanted to cry. It was an awful experience.
So, once again reduced nearly to tears onna counta my Bad Math (those bloodsucking bastards at my bank charge $30 for NSF returns!), and completely unable to figure out where this particular math problem took a bad turn, I decided to do some Googling. And, I’ll be damned! There is actually a math learning disability called Dyscalculia. Now, I know it’s easy to claim that you’ve got a learning disability, but gee, on the check-list of potential symptoms, I’m batting 1000.
It’s funny, because I never would’ve guessed that some of them were related. When I meet people, I can’t recall what they look like. There’s nothing quite like interviewing a bunch of potential employees, then not being able to visualize the one you want to hire. Worse yet, not being able to recognize them when they return for training. I can’t wear a watch, because I’ll look at it every two seconds. Why? Because my brain was unable to actually compute the time the previous thirty times I checked. I can ask five times in one conversation “When is the party/meeting/whatever?” and still be unable to recall it two seconds after hanging up the phone. I transpose numbers all the time. Sometimes, I mistake letters for numbers and vice versa. Or, I simply won’t see a number at all, especially if it’s the first digit in a string of numbers. I often can’t make heads or tails of schematic drawings or diagrams illustrating physical actions (e.g. illustrated tutorials without accompanying text). My brain and body just aren’t able to decode and mimic what my eyes are seeing.
Anyway, that was my epiphany for the day. I now return you to your regularly scheduled activities.
red paper boat 