I Solved for X but Lost Myself
I used to love that math had answers. Plug in the numbers, follow the steps, get the solution. Clean. Predictable. Unlike everything else falling apart at home.
Senior year, I'd stay after class working through coordinate planes while my friends went to parties. Each ordered pair felt like proof I had control over something. (2,4), (3,7), (4,10) – perfect little points that made sense when nothing else did.
Then I got to college. Turns out real life doesn't follow linear equations. The anxiety I'd been solving away with homework caught up. I'd stare at my calculus textbook at 3AM, realizing I'd spent four years becoming really good at finding points on other people's graphs.
Now I'm 23, working retail, still flinching when someone asks what I'm doing with my math degree. I can plot any coordinate you give me. I just can't figure out where I belong.
#AcademicBurnout #MathMajorReality #CollegeRegrets #Education
