If I Had Been Good at Math

If I had been good at math, I would have pulled the grades to go to my first-choice college, Cal Berkeley. And if I had gone to Cal, I wouldn't have moved after graduating from UCSB with my then boyfriend to Seattle to get my MFA at the University of Washington. And if I hadn't gone to the UW, I wouldn't have met my now husband of 24 years and given birth to my two wonderful sons.

This is the teen version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie that I told to my older son a couple of years ago when he was lamenting his less-than-stellar math SAT scores while filling out his college applications. It seemed to temporarily amuse and distract him from one of the many frustrations of that whole process, which pleased me. Besides, at that point why did he need to be good at math, when he was/is such a talented and funny writer?

My quaint story came up again recently when my younger son sent a photo via text message of his calculus test with 103 percent scrawled across the top. I had to smile.

So... If I hadn't been good at math, I would not have the one talented and funny writer for a son, and the other who is “good at math.” And one day, perhaps my younger son can tell his own child the story "If I Hadn't Been Good at Math,” while the older one can tell the one that starts with, "If I Had…" And both retellings would do the trick.