The complexity of math goes no further than it appears. 

I remember when I was in algebra 1, I always wondered why math was so difficult, even though I hardly tried. I even started questioning my own abilities, and whether it was now beyond my level. Nevertheless, I pulled through and ended up learning a lot.

I started noticing a pattern. Every time I saw an equation that was long, I automatically concluded that it would be hard or impossible to solve.

This was my mentality throughout school, up until 9th grade. You know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover?” Yeah, that was what I was supposed to do all this while.

I doubted myself all along. I always thought if it looked hard then it was probably hard. As a result, I resented math a lot.

But one day, I was slacking off again watching youtube instead of doing my homework. I came across a video titled “Math is not hard.” I watched the video out of complete boredom, but ended up being surprised.

To summarize the video, she explained how math is an illusion. It is created to look difficult, but when you actually attempt to solve it, you will realize how easy it is. She also explained that the human brain hates comprehending too much information because it becomes overwhelming.

I started applying her examples to myself, and I noticed they connected to me. It isn’t that it was hard, it was just that I didn’t want to try. I didn’t want to challenge myself because self doubt was always a step ahead of me. I decided it was time to change. Later that same year of 9th grade I started asking questions. I started trying, and answering questions. Slowly, I started realising how easy all this was.

 All I needed to do was to try and it was easy. Even the equations that seemed impossible to answer only required 3 or less steps. The answer was all in my hands, but I played around with it like it was a toy. “Just try,” I reminded myself along the way. And just like that, I passed Algebra 2 with straight A’s. I couldn’t have been more proud of myself because younger me would have been absolutely baffled.