Three point one four one five nine, two six five three five...
It was a friendly competition in our nerdy group, trying to memorize as many decimal places of pi as we could--not that we would ever use that knowledge to any great advantage, mind you. Ten was my limit. I think someone got to twenty-five places; I wonder if they still recite it now and again, a mathematical touchstone of sorts.
I was nerdy early on. Maybe the relative consistency of school expectations as we hopped from one military assignment to another shaped that part of my persona, even as the social side to that peripatetic lifestyle carved the boundaries of my introversion. Grades were understandable and attainable; figuring out what was "cool" and fitting in, often not so much.
We arrived in Texas the summer before my sophomore year. My parents were wise--they looked at schools first before looking at homes, and liked the feel of Parkland High School. I think we had less than seven hundred students on campus. Despite the size, we had access to honors courses and great teachers.
There was a core half-dozen of us who stuck together through Algebra II and trigonometry, chemistry and Honors English, physics and calculus. We had homework parties at each other's houses; my mom would supply us with two-liter bottles of soda and popcorn as we worked our way through differential equations and covalent bonds.
Nowadays, I wouldn't know where to start in finding the area under a curve; I'm surprised I even remember the word "covalent". But I do know pi to the tenth place--that's got to count for something on this Pi Day, right?
That, my friend, is impressive! And nerdy (from one nerd to another). I hope you enjoyed a large slice of pi to the tenth place.
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