Idk, I struggled and barely passed algebra courses, geometry was easier because it involves visual rather than abstract concepts of algebra. I had classes called "integrated math" through middle and high school that completely baffled me. Precalc was a nightmare due to the abstraction and my stubborn refusal to use the graphing calculator because I figured if I could see the work I wrote on the page, I'd get it.

When switching schools mid junior year and having retaken precalculus with an incomplete grade by the graceof the teacher who felt bad and passed me with a D minus seeing as I attended extra help every day for a full semester at 6:30 am just to pass, I realized he only passed me because he didn't want me in his class the next year to repeat what I obviously didn't comprehend.

The new school, having retaken another semester of precalc, I had the option of math for senior year: AP Stats or AP Calc. I opted for calculus.

And by god did all that shit from algebra in 8th grade and geometry come together! Calculus was my shit! It involved real-life applications of everything I never understood or cared about from the five previous years of math classes. Suddenly it was really interesting to apply all that shit to figure out how fast a ladder would slide down a wall and how long it would take a tank to drain and it all just made sense.

Both my parents are engineers and my mother was a math teacher too and they always tried to help me and got so frustrated that I didn't understand. At the point where I got so into calculus, studying for fun and helping my classmates after school, I was all, "Should I go into engineering?"

Nah. I went to art school. Now I work in a grocery store and I use math every day in many ways. Not just to add purchases and subtract to figure change, even though I could rely on the register to do all that, I buy shit for the store and have to know how much I paid, have to figure at least a 35% profit on that item, have to think about the demand for said item and its shelf life and how fast or slow it will flip, and price it accordingly.

Also, I buy Ambesol and Oragel at something like 2.49 apiece. But I mark it up to 7.49 retail because when someone's got a toothache, you better believe they're gonna pay for the relief. But then I figure, how often is someone going to come in for toothache remedy before the item expires? So I have to make it worth my while.

If I buy a certain item at 3 dollars cheaper through less convenient ways, I have to decide if it's worth convenience vs cost. If I buy something that flips quickly for 13 dollars that I sell ten of each day, when I can forego convenience and get it at 10 dollars, that's 30 dollars I can save which is the salary of one employee.

Math is so fucking cool. I still add on my fingers in front of customers, I'm not ashamed.