Thursday, 28 June 2018

Trigonometry

“Trigonometry does not make sense.”

“Yes it does! Unit circles make sense, you just have to calm down and listen to me!” I cried out to him. He slumped in his seat, licking his lips as his fingers picked up the handout in front of him. His eyes flickered towards me, eyebrows raised and shoulders shrugged. I sighed out to him in agony.

“Alright, I’ll try, I’ll try. What is a unit circle again?”

“Unit circles are used in math to help with trigonometry, they have a radius of one, making it easier for us to understand the coordinates of specific angles.”

“And it helps with sohcahtoa how?” I glared at him, making him mumble an apology for cutting me off.

I drew out a circle for him, dividing it up into four sections and drawing triangles. As I began to explain the use of angles and points in the circle, he started to nod his head. By the time I was finished, he had already been able to explain back to me everything I just said.

I smiled at him as he finished his last sentence, to which he grinned back at me. He started packing his things when he opened his mouth again.

“So, why’d you choose to become a math tutor?” Zipping up his backpack, he turned to look at me.

“I like helping people,” I offered him a smile. “And I do enjoy math, that is, compared to other subjects.”

“I’m more of a history kind of guy, and literature, but mainly history.” Martin put down his backpack and leaned back against his chair. “So I’d like to get to know more about your history. Who are you, any siblings, where are you from, any particular childhood memories you want to share?”

My introverted soul trembled a little bit at the thought of opening up. Instead of saying something, I shrugged my shoulders helplessly. He responded with a chuckle, running his hands through his auburn locks as his eyes looked directly into mine.

“I’ll start. My name is Martin, I was born on the 15th of November 2001 to Jean Pierre and Kristi. I have three younger brothers, triplets, named Jack, John and James. I also have a sister named Sierra, she’s two. My parents are from Hong Kong, but I was born in Chengdu before living here. When I was younger I saved a stray cat at a park near my childhood home and named her Tam before figuring out she was a he and named him Tom.”

He tilted his head and motioned for me to begin an introductory paragraph about myself. I still didn’t want to say anything, so he just sighed in return.

“Well then, if you don’t wish to talk about yourself then it’s fine.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

“No, no! It’s chill. You’ll be talking more about this circle anyway,” Martin took out the handout and pencil from before and placed them in front of me.

“What?”

“I still want you to talk, so explain to me about these numbers,” He pointed at the coordinates.

“What?”

“Well, the only thing I know is that we’ve just come back in full circle,” he smiled cheekily.



Katya Tjahaja

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