I have a learning disability called dyscalculia; it’s like dyslexia for math. My mother, for reasons I will never know, decided I didn’t have it when I was a kid, so I never got support or intervention, but now that I have my own free time, I’m trying to relearn math.
This has led to some interesting moments of me saying, “I’m very sorry, I don’t understand. Can you explain again?” to various bank tellers, cashiers, and other people, who are usually perfectly nice about it.
However, today, I got to do something new.
I went out to try an old favorite hole-in-the-wall sushi place. Apparently, someone had come in and decided that instead of serving flavorful sushi, “Wrap half a pound of fish in rice and seaweed and dribble soy sauce on it” was a substitute. (Or possibly “put an entire jalapeño in the sauce,” judging by one appetizer.) I couldn’t really stomach eating half a raw salmon at a time, so I politely asked for the bill to get the h*** out of there.
Out of habit, since I’m relearning math, I estimated the rough total of the bill.
It matched what was on the paper.
I’m disappointed to lose a good sushi joint, but I can now say that I actually can estimate a calculation and be in the general ballpark, instead of missing ten dollars here or there. It’s a victory I’m proud of.
( I wonder if my Wife had this problem. She always had me figure grocery totals and was amazed that I could do it in my head with an error of a dollar or two. And she couldn’t do fractions to save her life.)
It’s All Starting To Add Up To A Win
I have a learning disability called dyscalculia; it’s like dyslexia for math. My mother, for reasons I will never know, decided I didn’t have it when I was a kid, so I never got support or intervention, but now that I have my own free time, I’m trying to relearn math.
This has led to some interesting moments of me saying, “I’m very sorry, I don’t understand. Can you explain again?” to various bank tellers, cashiers, and other people, who are usually perfectly nice about it.
However, today, I got to do something new.
I went out to try an old favorite hole-in-the-wall sushi place. Apparently, someone had come in and decided that instead of serving flavorful sushi, “Wrap half a pound of fish in rice and seaweed and dribble soy sauce on it” was a substitute. (Or possibly “put an entire jalapeño in the sauce,” judging by one appetizer.) I couldn’t really stomach eating half a raw salmon at a time, so I politely asked for the bill to get the h*** out of there.
Out of habit, since I’m relearning math, I estimated the rough total of the bill.
It matched what was on the paper.
I’m disappointed to lose a good sushi joint, but I can now say that I actually can estimate a calculation and be in the general ballpark, instead of missing ten dollars here or there. It’s a victory I’m proud of.
( I wonder if my Wife had this problem. She always had me figure grocery totals and was amazed that I could do it in my head with an error of a dollar or two. And she couldn’t do fractions to save her life.)