Wy ogarniecie matematykę? 🙃

Описание: Can you handle math? 🙃 This question from my favorite YouTuber’s video made me laugh until I cried, because I immediately thought of the math exam in sixth grade – one of the funniest and most stressful moments of my childhood. My classmates and I were never math whizzes: for us, algebraic equations were black magic, and geometry was a set of incomprehensible rules that our teacher, Mr. Tomasz, explained with such passion that most of us wanted to fall asleep. When Mr. Tomasz announced that there would be an exam in a week, the entire class panicked – including me, because I knew I couldn’t handle math without anyone’s help. 🙃
My mom, hearing about the exam, decided she would help me study. Every day after school, we sat at the kitchen table, she explained the exercises from the textbook to me, and I tried to listen, but my thoughts wandered elsewhere – to playing on my phone, to dinner, to meeting my friends. "It’s simple, my boy", my mom said, drawing an equation on a piece of paper: "If you have 5 apples and add 3 more, you have 8. It’s the same with algebra – instead of apples, you have letters". But for me, it wasn’t simple – letters and numbers mixed together looked like a foreign text I couldn’t translate.

On the day of the exam, my mom gave me a calculator – "it will help you avoid mistakes in addition and subtraction", she said. I was very happy, because I thought the calculator would be my savior. Walking into the exam hall, my classmates exchanged tips: "I’ll write the formulas on my hand", Ola said, "and I’ll send you a signal if you’re in trouble", Kacper whispered. Mr. Tomasz handed out the exam papers, and I turned on the calculator – and surprise: the batteries were dead. It didn’t work. 😱

My heart sank. I looked at the tasks: the first one was adding two-digit numbers – simple, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t concentrate. The second task was an equation: 2x + 5 = 15. I had no idea what to do. I looked at Kacper – he tried to signal me, but Mr. Tomasz glanced at him, and Kacper quickly went back to his tasks. I looked at Ola – she hid her hand behind the paper, but I couldn’t see the formulas. I sat there, staring at the blank paper, and thought: "I can’t handle math. 🙃 It’s over, I’ll fail".

Suddenly, Mr. Tomasz came up to me and looked at my paper: "What’s wrong, my boy? You have no solutions". I explained to him about the calculator, and he smiled: "Don’t worry – math isn’t just about calculators, it’s about logic and focus. Try solving the first task without a calculator". He sat next to me and explained each step: how to add numbers, how to solve simple equations. Then I understood – math wasn’t as hard as I thought, I just didn’t have someone to explain it simply.

After the exam, Mr. Tomasz told me I passed with a good grade. I was very happy, and my classmates wondered how it happened. "Mr. Tomasz helped me", I told them, and they laughed: "We thought you’d fail". Today, when I meet them, we still talk about that exam and say: "Can you handle math? 🙃 Yes, if there’s someone who explains it simply". That was the day I learned that struggling with math isn’t a shame – everyone needs time and help to understand something. And now, when I see math problems, I smile – because I know I can handle it.


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