Once upon a time I was very silly and had convinced myself that I wouldn’t be a real person until I took Calculus I. I’d gone through Honors Pre-Calc in high school, but Calculus just has this history of agony associated with it that I felt I needed.
I didn’t take it my freshman year at UAF. I thought about taking it my sophomore year, but the only class that fit my schedule was at 7:55am, 4 days a week, as a combined UAF/Hutchison Technical High School course. No thanks!
Enter junior year, when the only class that fit my schedule was at 7:55am, 4 days a week, as a combined UAF/Hutchison Technical High School course. Keeping in mind that my personally crafted major wouldn’t even require me to take Calculus, I signed up for the course. And somehow my brilliance got me in the Honors Program when I started college? (please note the sarcasm)
There I was, fresh off my first field job and recently moved into a brand new dry cabin with my best friend. The year was going to be amazing! Then I signed up for Calculus, more German, Photography (darkroom-style), and Photojournalism all in the same semester. Plus I carried on with intramural broomball, which consisted of games sometime between 9:30 and 12:30 in the evening multiple nights a week.
Let’s just say I didn’t exactly get a lot of sleep that fall semester, and I wasn’t always a fun cabinmate with much time for shenanigans. Fortunately I had friends on campus who were more than happy to let me sleep on their couch when walking the 20 minutes home just wasn’t worth it. There was definitely one week when I didn’t go home for about 6 days… Regardless of the studying, we did have some good times in the cabin. After all, we could watch the Northern Lights from the driveway!
As much as that semester meant a crazy schedule, I needed to test myself to make a point. I mentioned I took Pre-Calc in high school, yet UAF claimed I needed to take it as a prerequisite for Calculus. I wasn’t going to waste money on a course I’d already taken, so I turned to the Honors Program for help. With my agreement to ask for help if I needed it, the Honors Program bypassed the system and registered me for Calculus. Since I hadn’t taken any math course since spring 2007, going to Calculus in fall 2009 was a little intimidating. Not being one to ask for help, I knew I’d have to swallow my pride or whatever and take the necessary steps to prove I could succeed in the class – which I did.
That semester started nice and early with a bike ride to a high school for their first period. Yes, my class would be dismissed by a bell! (except for those rare times when my instructor Beth was done teaching a little early and told the college students they could leave) Beth and I had met a few days earlier when I went to see where this class would be held and ask her a couple of questions about the course. At the time I learned she was also a seasonal biker who understood the slight agony of early morning biking.
What I didn’t learn until that weekend was that she lived in my cabin neighborhood! I was taking my camera for an evening stroll, and as 2 people and 1 puppy approached me, Beth asked me, “Have you finished your homework yet?”
I’ll be perfectly honest and say my first thought was Oh no, my teacher lives in my neighborhood! Then I realized she had an adorable puppy named Laya! I don’t remember the exact time frame for the conversations that followed, but before the temperatures dropped too far, she had started to drive rather than bike and began picking me up in the mornings! Naturally there was a downside to “riding with the teacher”; she picked me up at 6:45 so we could be there early for students to come ask questions. Going anywhere that early is just unnatural for a college student!
However, I was quite grateful for the rides and our short conversations along the way. Fortunately there were pretty much always other students who showed up early with the same questions on homework, so we all bonded in the early mornings. One classmate even ended up driving me from the high school up the hill to campus after class every day. As much as the early hour was painful, I was being well cared for by my Calculus comrades.
I did have lots of questions about my Calculus homework, so early in the semester I forced my feet in the direction of the UAF Math lab for help. I learned a fair number of classmates frequented the room on a regular basis, as well. I found it to be a quiet area where I could spend hours working on any homework and ask for help as needed.
I’ll admit there were some nights where I’d stay in the Math lab until 7 or 8, move to the darkroom to work until broomball – and sometimes return afterwards, get home to the cabin at 1am, work on Calculus until 3, sleep, and then wake up around 6 to get ready for class. Those days were brutal. Fortunately even though I did have to go to Calculus on the morning of my 21st birthday, it was a Friday, meaning I was done with classes by 11:30am. The rest of the day was mine. Calc didn’t keep me from my traditional birthday breakfast, though. Nope, I enjoyed my ice cream with Teri before she went back to bed. 🙂
True, I spent more hours in the Math lab than I would have liked, but those hours were worth it in the end. Because in the end I got a 93.5% on the final and an overall A for the course. BAM! Take that UAF. I told you I didn’t need your prereq. Mission accomplished. I’d become a real person!
Now all that is fine and dandy, and I’d even say doing so well in that class is one of my greatest academic accomplishments in college. Calculus changed my life for other reasons, though. Remember the puppy named Laya? We’ve been buds for years!!! She and her brother Yuri are my favorite puppies in the Fairbanks area!
You see, because of those early morning rides, Beth and I got to know each other a bit. She quickly learned I Love dogs, so she told me to come say hi or ask for help at her cabin whenever. Teri and I were invited over for a few meals with Beth, her husband Constantine, and Laya. In spring I got to puppysit for a few nights and sleep on the dog bed with Laya! (Beth and Constantine love dogs like I do, so Laya’s bed was along the lines of a thick futon cushion on the floor. Not bad!)
Beth’s husband Constantine is Russian, so the two of them have gone to visit his family a few times over the past couple years. Beth loves her triathlons and hails from Minnesota, so at least she tends to return home for a specific race in the summers. Poor Laya (and now Yuri) get left behind, and someone has to take care of them. Enter: Me!
Ultimately the best result of taking 7:55am Calculus was this: an invitation to visit puppies and dogs/dogsit as needed and available. Yuri joined the family in summer 2010, and his goofiness + Laya’s sweetness = Steph’s extreme happiness. Both dogs were something like sled dog rejects who somehow didn’t make the cut to pull sleds, and I’m so glad that’s the case.
In addition to loving these dogs as much as I loved my own Pixie and DeeDee, I had the chance to fall in love with Beth and Constantine’s cabin. If someone told me right now that I belonged in Fairbanks, handed me a dream job based there (but with plentiful travel), and paid me enough money for me to rent my own cabin; I’d take this one in a heartbeat.
Fortunately I actually had that chance in summer 2012. I had about 2 glorious months of living here because Beth and Constantine had moved up in the world to a house with running water. If adventure and prospective jobs hadn’t called me away – and if there were any real jobs for me in Fairbanks – I could have happily lived there a long time. (I left this for my trip to Canada, Washington, and eventually my job with Conservation Canines.)
I’ve cared for these 2 puppers multiple times over the last few years, and I always secretly hope Beth and Constantine will just decide not to come back. Then I’d have 2 awesome dogs of my own!! I have come to love their house almost as much as I love their former cabin. After all, with running water comes a shower, laundry, and plenty of water for dishes dirtied by cooking! Also, it’s just as adorable as the cabin.
So, I dove into Calculus for the mathematical experience, but I emerged with new human and canine friends, short-term dogsitting jobs, wonderful housing, car access when Beth and Constantine are out of town (!!), and some pretty entertaining memories.
If you were wondering, the answer is no. I don’t remember any of the Calculus I worked so hard to learn. Still worth it!
