Einstein and My Last Math Tutorial

By Bilsana Bibic

I just walked out of my last Math tutorial this semester. Since I’m a senior, we will get a writing period after Christmas break and I won’t have Math for the next 8 weeks. My old self, the one who was great in Math but never had a passion for it, would celebrate. However, after 4 years at St. John’s, I feel sad about this fact.

Only this semester, we read three Einstein’s papers, including his paper on special relativity and parts of his paper on general relativity. We studied Minkowski and deconstructed all of our preconceived notions of space and time! It was a semester filled with challenges my Math class overcame together. I will miss it. When will I get to sit down and plunge myself into an exploration of Einstein’s thoughts again? It’s ironic that this question bothers me considering that I do not want to study Math or Science. I am actually interested in International Development. But I want to converse with others about exciting ideas, no matter what field they belong to. St. John’s has given me an opportunity to do this on a daily basis for the past 4 years. More importantly, it has pushed me further than I thought I could go in subjects that are not of primary interest to me, such as Math. There was a suggestion today to start a study group on tensor calculus. I’m thinking of joining it. I know it will open up a whole new world of wonder and reveal a new way of thinking about the world.