No Regrets

I think we all have a few regrets throughout our life, though I do my best not to dwell on them. One which constantly pops up for me is never taking A-level maths. In the big scheme of things I suppose it’s pretty unimportant, but whenever I cover the more mathematical topics in chemistry, I always get a pang of regret about never pursuing it.

The main reason for this was my GCSE maths teacher. Now, to set the scene I will quite happily say that I must have been real handful to teach. I was lippy, lazy and didn't do any homework (for those that know me well, I’m probably still like that!). I think back now about how I could have achieved so much more (more regrets?) and then realise, with the way everything has panned out, I was probably quite lucky.

Anyways, my math teacher, who shall remain nameless, decided to drop me to a lower maths set due to the fact that I did no work, which in retrospect was probably quite right. Try as I might to impress her after this, she wouldn't budge and I rotted away in a lower set. As a result of this I ended up taking the intermediate maths paper (your maximum grade for this was a B). Now there are two sides to the argument here. On one had, I no doubt deserved to be moved to a lower set due to my work, and attitude. On the other hand, I also had the ability to do the higher paper and thus have a chance and getting an A (I proved this numerous times after school by getting A’s on the higher paper).

Perhaps, the teacher has made me learn a valuable lesson. Perhaps the teacher was wrong, and stopped a student who enjoyed maths, pursuing a different career path. Whatever the answer it has affected my life, but fortunately not my love of maths. The moral of the story here is that, in life, you often don't get second chances, so I suggest, always trying your best the first time round, or it might come back to haunt you.