The peppermints worked!

Dear Professor,

Something magical has happened. For the first time in two years, I left a classroom after handing in the final test in a quantitative course with a new feeling.

Usually when I do this, I feel that:
1. I have just been physically assaulted
2. I am close to losing my academic scholarship.
3. I understood less than 20% of the test material and will never apply it to my life or work anyway.

Monday, after leaving your finance classroom, I felt that:
1. I could possibly walk on air.
2. I have secured my academic scholarship.
3. I understood and am confident that I have successfully completed at least 80% of the test, and because of the knowledge I gained, I will be able to fully understand Marketplace Money (one of my favorite NPR shows).

I'm not saying I got an A, or even a B. It's possibly I got a C! But that I actually comprehended the material was a huge leap for me. I've gone from shunning numbers to embracing them and actually using them as...as they are supposed to be used? Guidance for qualitative decisions?

Wow. Anyway, above is one of the formulas that I used on the test, the Black Scholes model. It is actually a formula used to do something like measure how fast steam comes out of a teapot, or something random and sciency like that. Our text actually implied that people using the text to learn finance could not even comprehend the orgins of the formula and should just accept it as is.

I will do that proudly. Thank you. I accept and embrace my mediocre but hard-earned understanding of quantitative principles.