Overworked, MisUnderstood and Feared

This post was written in response to a Red Writing Hood writing prompt from the Red Dress Club. This week's prompt is as follows:
The most frequent advice I come across for amateur writers is, "Write what you know."

"What you know" doesn't necessarily always mean "your comfort zone." For this week, take what you know out of your comfort zone. Try a new genre, a new time period, a geography you've only dreamed of, fantasy or historical instead of contemporary fiction, try the male POV if you usually write women. Or vice versa.

Switch it up. See where it takes you.


I switched it up. Here's where it took me.

Here I am again. On every notebook page, in the textbook, on the whiteboard, projected onto the SmartBoard  and even in the classroom decorations. The teacher gets me, but these kids, oh these kids, every single year they get so stressed every single time I am around. I keep hoping they’ll start using someone else in my stead - the pressure is too great, the feelings of hate, fear and anxiety all pointed in my direction are more than I can bear.

I am only a letter. Why am I the one given all the responsibility? Why am I the one that has to represent all of the lost numbers of the universe?

“Find x,” they say. “Solve for x,” are the directions from others. Don’t they know I AM RIGHT HERE! It is not I who needs to be found! And I am smart enough to solve my own problems!

I mean, sure, sometimes y gets called to action, but everyone knows which one of us comes to mind first when humans are having their post-traumatic stress disorder flashbacks of Algebra - no one is getting fooled here! I understand that e and i have other responsibilities in the realm of mathematics, and that o, l, and t are often avoided for their ability to be confused with other members of the mathematical symbol army, but that still leaves so many others to choose from!

ANY LETTER CAN BE A VARIABLE! Why is this lost on so many?!

I am one letter, I stand for whichever number you want me to. I also represent the horizontal axis of the coordinate plane (I recognize I can give that responsibility to no one). I am feeling overworked, misunderstood and feared. I did not agree to this.

I became a variable to expand my horizons. I became a variable to stand in for numbers. Numbers that could be anything -  a measurement, a monetary amount, a place in space, a quantity, or anything else that you can quantify. I did not become a variable to become the trigger of the math-phobic’s nightmares!

Through it all, though, I love my job. I just wish more people could understand it... could understand me. I have so much to offer and I am not scary. I just show up when I am needed to stand-in for a missing, unknown, or ever-changing value.

It is really exciting work. I have seen the world, heck, I’ve seen the universe. People who don’t understand each other’s spoken or written languages can still share me when I am in my role as a variable. I have been doing this for a really long time, so I’ve seen what humanity is capable of and, I am proud to say, that I have played my part in some fabulous discoveries.

So please don’t take this as my resignation. Just try to understand where I am coming from. It’s a really big job and sometimes I feel like I’m all alone out here.

I am a letter, but I can represent any quantity in the universe. It’s a big idea to pack into one little x, but that’s it in a nutshell. Don’t over-complicate me, I’m abstract.