Remember Space Jam, that movie featuring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes? And at some point during the film, I think it was when he was young and really bad at basketball or something, the song “I Believe I can Fly” played? Well, so random I know, but it always made me realize that the sky is the limit.

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But in Calculus, I have so painfully learned that sometimes, the limit does not exist.

Whaaaaaat? This whole Calculus thing has got me feeling like a fool. And, I don’t like when I’m feeling a fool. Well, no one does, and so my tale begins.  (Note the exaggeration; I understand the concept of limits, but finding the correct answer to ambiguous homework problems proves to be a completely different subject worth examining).

On the first day of my Calculus “lab”, where the Teaching Assistant (whose name shall remain unknown, or undefined) guides students through homework problems to clear any misunderstandings that arise from the professor’s lecture, about five people showed up. The next time we met, four students attended. On the third day, only two students showed their faces. And on Monday, I was the only student to grace the RLM building with my presence. Wooo! That’s like, f(x)= – x, or something along those lines.

And you want to know why?

Because no one, no one, no onnne will ever enjoy feeling dumb. I think Alicia Keys agrees. And that’s something that my TA would not understand. If I say that I need help with five problems, and the period lasts for an hour, it fails to make sense to take the whole hour speculating the answer to one problem. Just show me how to do it! Teach by example, not by trying to downplay someone’s intellectuality. I know that Great Britain has a prime minister, and that the United States has a president, and I know what a segment is and I know what a line is and I know what a limit is, and I know what the G8 is. Really? Who asks if someone knows about the G8 and the countries within it and who leads each country to explain if f is defined on (a,b) for some a<5<b, if the limit of f(x) equals 4 as x approaches 5? No, the G8 does not apply here, and trying to sound so smart makes you so NOT like a G6.

No matter how smart someone might be, a limit can exist. And plucking that uni brow would be a good first step to eliminating that limit towards some kind of illumination.

Note: This blog solely serves to entertain readers through satirical expressions and heaps of hyperbole. The text should be taken into account with a grain of salt. And, if you’re like me, you probably wouldn’t be able to distinguish a  grain of salt from that of sugar, but hey, at least we get the gist of sweetness.