Book Learnin'

For this week's homework, Scalzi asks:

>>Weekend Assignment #21: Everyone had a subject in school they like better than all the rest. What was yours? And what's the most memorable thing you learned?

Extra Credit: Class pictures!<<

I loved school.  I loved every subject -- well, almost.  I majored in math (in college) for the simple reason that I was good at it.  And why should I major in something that would be, y'know, hard?  Math came easy for me, so it was a no-brainer to major in it.  And, to tell you the truth, I also continued in math because it impressed people that I was good at it.  What with being a girl and all. 

That is, in fact, the most memorable thing that I didn't learn -- that girls aren't supposed to be good at math.  My mother was a math teacher, so I always assumed that math was just fine for girls.  Nobody ever told me otherwise.  It wasn't till sometime in High School that a teacher mentioned that girls were traditionally better in English and that I was something of an anomaly being so good in Math.  By this time, though, I was solidly established as a math overachiever, and it seemed too late to turn around and go be a good little English student instead.  Besides, the fact that I was doing something that some people thought I shouldn't be doing seemed to just harden my resolve to be even better at it. 

In that sense, then, the most memorable thing I learned is that everyone has their own abilities, stereotypes don't mean squat, and (bonus) you can really blow some people's minds by playing against their preconceived notions of your limitations.

(And boy did that ever come in handy once I got out of law school and started litigating.  What?  Me?  Sweet, innocent, short, soft-spoken young lady in the pink suit?  Naah, she's nothing to worry about at all.)

Extra Credit Kindergarten Photo: