My Secret Shame - Part 2

New York State has state-wide final exams called "Regents exams" on particular courses that you must pass to pass the course. You could get A's all year long, get an A on the school's Final and fail the Regents and you failed the course.

Math was never my strong suit.

My brain was not built for Geometry and so in 10th grade, I struggled by with C's in Geometry, but I knew I had to pass the Regents or else I'd have to repeat Geometry. I went for extra help every day after school from Easter until the exam.

In those days, the Regents exams were given in the gymnasium where they'd move in desks that would be positioned 10 feet apart and it was a big deal. I think the test was two hours. Part of studying for the Regents was doing old Regents exams and you'd buy books full of old Regents exams and take them as practice.

So on that sunny day in June, lo those many years ago, I was sitting at my desk, in the gym, facing the Geometry Regents. My teacher put the exam face down on my desk (because it was timed) and looked me straight in the eyes and said (I swear), "You know, it's a shame... no one deserves to pass more than you."

Hey, thanks for the vote of confidence! He assumed I was going to fail.

But, I came though. Passing was 65 and I got a 67. Good enough for me.

So it was with some joy that I saw this t-shirt that Mary drew my attention to tonight... This is my kind of Geometry, and it's exactly how I still feel about it!

I'll give the place a plug -- the website is called Signals.com -- and even looking at this T-shirt makes me shudder with bad memories of Geometry with Mr. Stock.