My Most Important Day
I had always been curious about all the things in the world. In fact, my parents used to always mention how inquisitive I was. My world got difficult when I turned five. My parents thought it would be a good idea to hire an intense tutor to prepare me for school. At first, I liked my tutor, things were going well, but soon I became so overwhelmed by the pressure of studying that I began to rebel. As it turned out, all that preparation was a big waste of time. When trying to enroll several months later, new enrollment rules further inhibited me because I was too young. The school would not accept me until age seven and as a result I spent one more year with my tutor preparing for school. When I finally entered school, I was so bored because I already knew most of the material. As the years passed, my dislike for school slowly dwindled. I always wondered why we study all that stuff in school. I knew that if I could understand the purpose, I would be more motivated to study, which finally happened one day.
It was a sunny Sunday; my father had a plan to remodel his garage into a workshop. At that time, I was fourteen years old and in the seventh grade, and of course I was eager to help him. The day before, we had cleaned his jungle-like garage. We were going to start to equip the garage with table saw, jig saw, drill, and other machines, but we had a problem. There was no electricity for the light or to run all the machines which we wanted to install. There was a way of fixing it by just stretching a wire from our house to the garage, but the hard part was that we lived on the fourth floor of an apartment house and the garage was approximately 300 feet away. That was where my part came in. My father wanted to guess what length wire we should buy, but I said that I could calculate it. My father was pleased because we would save money by not over-purchasing the copper wire and a steel rope needed to supply the garage with power. That was the moment when I understood that the past seven years I had studied weren't useless. I was very excited when I figured out how I could use my knowledge of math in real life.
First, we measured the length from our garage to the basement of our house. It was exactly 281 feet. By putting a small weight on the end of the thread and unrolling it down out of the window, we measured the height from ground level to our apartment with a thread. Then, I pulled the thread back and measured it piece by piece, determining that it was thirty feet long. I had all the measurements that I needed. I had a right triangle with the one side equal to thirty feet and the other side equal to 281 feet. With the two sides, I was able to calculate the hypotenuse: a2+b2=c2 where “a” and “b” are the sides and “c” is my hypotenuse which represented the wire. I calculated length really quickly and determined we needed to add ten extra feet. We went to the store and bought 293 feet of thick copper wire, strong steel rope, two enormous hooks, and strange rings. I didn't expect that the wire would be so thick, but my father explained that it was supposed to be like that, so it could withstand the load of electricity that we were going to apply on it. He also mentioned that I would study that in school in a couple of years. After we came out of the store, he stated that he was going to buy 350 feet of wire and rope. Since I found a solution to the problem, he gave me the extra money, which I had saved him from spending. That was really nice of him, and that was a lot of money for me. I felt so excited, not only was I able to help my family but had received a reward for it.
When we got home, my father installed two strong hooks: one in our apartment, and another in the garage. We stretched the steel rope on them like a string on a guitar. Then we put on those special rings which we bought from the store. “These rings will hold the wire hanging off the rope every three feet,” my father explained.
After we were done with the rings, we connected them to the rope one by one and let the wire slide down the rope. In a couple of hours, we had the wire ready. My father connected it to the insides of the wall outlet. We had three feet of extra wire left. My father was happy that we didn’t have too much extra wire and even more that we weren’t short. That day and many days after, he kept telling the story to all his friends about how I had helped him. That was the most pleasant part because I always liked and still like when my parents feel proud of me.
Now being older, I understand that my father could have calculated that himself. He has been an electrician for many years and was more then capable of solving a simple Pythagorean equation, but instead he chose to empower and enlighten me. I am really grateful for that. That day made me understand the purpose of studying, and after it, I have been studying not for my parents, but for myself. I understand now that every effort I make takes me one step closer to achieving my goals.