Change Scares Me—But So Did Math at First
Change and I have never been best friends.
It shows up unannounced, flips the room upside down, and expects me to figure it out without instructions. I used to resist it with everything I had. But over time and oddly, through math I realised that maybe change isn’t here to ruin things. Maybe it’s here to teach.
I’ve always found comfort in the structure of mathematics. The equations, the logic, the way things eventually add up. So when life started throwing its own messy, unpredictable variables at me, I found myself leaning back into some of those fundamentals. And strangely, they helped.
Variables: Change is Just X Waiting to be Solved
I still remember the first time I saw an algebra problem. There it was, this equation with a mysterious little x, just sitting there like it expected me to know what it meant. I stared at it, confused, maybe a little annoyed. But with time and a few wrong answers I started to get it.
Turns out, x was never there to mess with me, just like life, it was simply something to figure out.
Derivatives: If There’s Change, There’s Movement
I never thought calculus would give me life advice but here we are. Derivatives tell us how something is changing. Not whether it’s good or bad, just that it is. I love that neutrality. Sometimes, we’re obsessed with labelling every shift as a win or a loss. But maybe we’re missing the point.
Change means we’re not stuck. It means we’re in motion. And that’s something.
Limits: Becoming Isn’t Instant
There’s this quiet beauty in the concept of a limit. We get closer and closer to a point, but we never quite land on it. Still, the entire process matters.
Although I don’t always see it this way, but I try to believe it: growth isn’t loud or obvious. Most days, it just feels like I’m inching forward, unsure if it even counts. But maybe that is progress—quiet, messy, and slowly leading somewhere better, even if I can’t see it yet.
Geometry: You Can Shift Without Losing Yourself
We talk about “transforming” so much, it starts to sound like I need to become someone completely different. But in geometry, when a shape is rotated or flipped, it’s still the same shape. It just looks different.
That hit me. Life changes us—our job, our city, our relationships. But our core? That stays. We’re not becoming someone else. We’re just unfolding.
Math never resisted change—it made space for it. It treated change as a constant.
That’s what equations do. They adapt. They rebalance.
And maybe that’s the point. Change isn’t disruption.
It’s just part of how things continue to make sense.