Numberful

I work at the library. I put books back on the shelves after they have been checked back in. I work with the dewey decimal system. My friends are in disbelief because my job involves numbers and I’m not practical with math. It’s hard for me to take one number and do something with it to another number. But this job has shown that I’m okay with just one number. Even if that number is combined with letters like 947.BEF.

This job has given me my confidence back. Sure, I’m only being paid $7.75 an hour. But this healed the humiliation I suffered in 1967 at the hands of my math teacher Mrs. Geyser. My classmates and I were given a test where in one instance we had to steal 52.5 pieces from the number 67. I felt badly for 67. I wrote “67 doesn’t deserve this.” I turned in my paper. Mrs. Geyser read it and I was suspended for two weeks.

My family wilted at the possibility of another humiliation and decided to further my education through television. This was hard on me because daytime TV consisted of game shows and soap operas. I lost faith in television. This is hard on a six year old boy.