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long to remind myself that my apparent flair for math tricks is pretty much limited to the math I learned before I became preoccupied with having perfect hair and a boyfriend.

A few days ago a question appeared on my percentage article. Someone asked how to figure out 6.25 percent of a grocery bill of $300. As was the case previously, I didn't know if this was a young kid or someone who wanted a mental trick to figure out sales tax while shopping. (The $300 grocery bill should have been a tip-off, because most of the people I know don't spend that much on groceries each week.) I offered the tricks I thought were easiest and most useful to a grocery shopper in a busy supermarket, hit "submit", and - as always - assumed that may be the end of my relationship with the good, old, percentage article. I suppose I've kind of hoped the article would go away "while the bloom is still on the rose". I guess I've kept thinking that one of these days someone would ask some question for which I just couldn't give a nifty, super-quick-and-easy, answer. Maybe I did do better than average on the SAT's, but, I figured, one of these days the jig was going to be up, and I would have to confess to someone that I have been a fraud. After all, I am a writer-type - not a math-type. (Oh, the insecurity of it all.) I reassured myself that I have never falsely represented myself. I've never said I was a math expert. All I did was offer a few tricks about finding percentages. (Why? Why? Why on Earth did I ever whip up that percentage article? What was I thinking? I AM NOT A MATH PERSON!)

Well, yesterday yet another e.mail came. A comment had been posted under my percentage article. "Here we go again," I thought. Please understand that I've kind of enjoyed my little version of "fame" with this little percentage piece, and I'm always happy to help anyone if I'm at all able to do that. Still, I've built my identity on being a writer-type. Besides, in view of the fact that I would not be fit to give math tips to college students, I have been acutely aware that my little affinity for figuring out percentages isn't anything of which I should be particularly proud.

Thinking that I would go read what the latest comment/question was, and believing that maybe this time would be the last time this article haunted me, I went to the site, where my percentage article sits in all its questionable glory. A comment from a seventh-grade student was the latest comment, and it wasn't a question. It said, "Wow. Thanks. I got an "A" in my math test." I smiled to myself as I read the surprising comment. I thought to myself, "Wow. The Internet is known for all kinds of false statements being made, and I don't know if this is true; but if it is, wow."

When I was young I would think about writing and my life. I wasn't someone who envisioned becoming a best-selling author or gaining fame (which is a good thing because I'm not seeing any best-seller happening in the near future, and time is running out). What I used to think about was how I would one day write one thing that made some difference for some person. I like to believe that, of all the things I've written, my percentage article would not be considered my best work. In fact, I like to think that one of these days I may write something that could actually change the world.

In the meantime, though, if it's true that my little percentage article (which has kept coming back to me like a relentless boomerang) really did help a seventh-grade kid get an "A" in a math test....

Well, wow.

Learn more about this author, Lisa H Warren.
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