Continuing the previous topic (learning), the other option for me is that it should be "real". Keep it real. To have a direct impact (or foreseeable application) to some scenario in real life. Like programming a simulated manufacturing assembly line for optimized performance. Or creating a system that controls a train on a variety of tracks and off-ramps and loops. Or designing a pattern to be shaved out of hard plastic molding. That stuff makes sense, and I can see a reason we should learn it.

But when numbers go imaginary, they lose me. My imagination is reserved for fun things, not math.

And yet, the biggest lessons I learned were those dealing with life: relationships, people, me. It's ironic that in an environment that boasts superior courses and curriculums, these were things that were not taught in class. And things I continue to learn long after classrooms are of the past. Some lessons harder than others, some more engulfing than others, some longer to understand than others.

And thus, I continue, forging new neural connections, hoping my brain won't sit idly by while life withers it away.