As HF-L inducts new members to its Alumni Hall of Fame, it reminds me of that pleasant fall day in 2009 when Gates-Chili honored me in a similar way. The district asked all inductees to address the senior class in a special assembly. I thought the speakers would probably talk about either why education mattered to them or how their time at Gates-Chili helped them in their jobs.

In short, they’d be bland bios.

I didn’t want to bore the kids. I wanted to leave them laughing in the aisles with self-deprecating humor. At the same time, I wanted them on the edge of their seats, enthralled by the dramatic arc of a true-life story.

Of course, I’d abide by tradition by acknowledging the importance of education, but let’s be honest, what did they care about my career? So, I left that out.

I knew I was coming out of left field, but, in the words of those 20th-century British philosophers, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”

Because of this daring, I suspected the students would become unsettled. I hoped they would Continue Reading “How Math Saved My Life: From High School Disappointment to Hall of Fame Speech”