Math

This morning we attended the UCLA Department of Mathematics Graduation Celebration.  DS1 was presented as one of the Ph.D. Degree Candidates in Applied Math, and so of course we were all bursting our buttons to be there with him and had to take a bunch of photos.  If you look very closely at the above photo, you can see DS1 approaching the podium to be congratulated by the professor, I believe it was Richard Elman. 

We also enjoyed the Graduation program.  The Guest Speaker was Dr. Peter Jones who received his own doctorate in 1978 from UCLA.   In his discourse, Dr. Jones mentioned the German mathematician David Hildbert (1862-1943).     A contemporary of Albert Einstein, Hildebert has been credited with possibly being the most recent individual who knew all the Math known to man.  Since his time, the vast amounts and variations of math and research have grown so large that no one person can learn it all during a lifetime.  That thought was quite interesting to me, not that I have ever been anywhere near to knowing much more math than I can use on a daily basis, but just the thought of how much study and research and knowledge is out there.   I did fairly well in Math when I was in school, but it was never a very compelling subject to me.  I studied what was required, and did my best.  And that was pretty much it.

DS1 has been fascinated with math since he was a very small child, and that fact has been fascinating to me.  As a mother it was exciting to see him grasp the concepts of numbers and addition and multiplication etc before he was old enough to begin school, and it has been exciting to see his progress and work throughout his school years. I have always been proud to be his mother!  Math is so much more than just numbers.  It is a way to solve problems in almost any area of work and study.  I understand very little of it all, but I'm grateful for those who have the abilities and interests that allow them to be the problem solvers.  I'm glad that Math has been a good journey for DS1 throughout the years, and I trust that the future will hold many more successful math solutions for him.