Arriving at Destinations

The GPS system in the Honda is my favorite. Unlike the navigational system in my other vehicles there are 3 settings: quick, short and easy. I prefer the easy setting—my husband always chooses the quick route. 

In elementary school, all three of my girls participated in Mathletes—it was a competitive after school activity.  Every week students went to an enrichment class and then were given higher level math problems for homework to solve on  their own--except that parents just couldn’t  help but get involved.

 One week the Mathletes question read : a box contains 6 legged grasshoppers and 8 legged spiders. If the total number of legs equals 90, how many grasshoppers and spiders are there?  I read that and immediately thought: algebraic equation with substitution. My friend Elaine, who was an accountant, made 2 columns of numbers: one column had multiples of 6 and the other had multiples of eight. She aligned the 2 columns until she came up with the correct sum. And my friend Maria, who was an elementary school teacher, drew grasshoppers and spiders and added legs to the bodies until she too arrived at the correct sum.

The CPA exam has 4 parts. One needs to achieve a grade of 75 on all 4 parts to become certified—and one may pass each part in any order. When Sam was going through the process some of her friends received grades in the 90’s on all 4 parts—others like herself, passed some parts with a mere 75. And some passed all four parts at once, whereas some failed a part or two before finally passing the entire exam.

At age 50 my brother Mark graduated from law school. His educational road had many diversions. He recently won a big case and it was publicized in Newsday. I could not have been more proud.

Sometimes in life it doesn’t matter what road you take or how long it takes to get there. It just matters that you arrive—it’s all about the final destination.  People carve individual paths to reflect their individuality. People get there when people get there. All roads lead to Rome.

And in case you do not feel like doing the math: there are 7 grasshoppers and 6 spiders in the box:

6 (8 spiders) = 48

7 (6 grasshoppers) = 42

Sum = 90