Use it or lose it

There are certain things that, it seems, once you learn them, your body and mind doesn’t “unlearn” them.

Riding a bicycle is one of the more common examples.

And I think it’s true. When the pandemic first hit back in 2020, my daughter and I bought bicycles to ride around because, well, there wasn’t a whole lot to do. And even though I hadn’t ridden a bicyle in at least 15 years (and she hadn’t ridden one in probably 5) we both hopped up on our bikes and after a few wobbly seconds, we were cruising the mean streets of Old Marion in style.

There are a lot of things like that, where even though I haven’t used a particular set of skills, if I jump back into it, it’s like my brain goes through a quick “file search” and I’m good to go.

Math is not one of those things…

That daughter I mentioned above is taking Algebra II in school this year. Back in the day, I was a math whiz. I took every math class that Marion High School offered and was quite the “mathmachicken” as my son likes to say. However, that was 30 years ago.

I helped her out last year with some geometry that was still lingering in one ofthe wrinkles of my mind, but last night she needed help with some algebra and I gave it a quick look, expecting to go, “Oh, here’s what you do…”

Nope. Nothing.

It was all just a bunch of numbers and letters and little numbers and little letters and lines and… I’m getting a little PTSD just thinking about it. So, here’s a little advice.

If you know it, use it, because you too might have kids.