I went back to University in my late twenties after six years away. While I worked in the tech industry as a developer, I hadn’t done any actual math since Univ

I went back to University in my late twenties after six years away. While I worked in the tech industry as a developer, I hadn’t done any actual math since University calculus nearly nine years before. My first semester back, I had a calculus course. It was an absolute nightmare. I knew that if I had taken the class fresh out of high school, I would have dominated it. But, I didn’t. I fucked up and dropped out. Now, I was completely fucked... But, I passed that class, went on and finished a degree. I got through that class with a few strategies: 1.) I told my professor the truth. When I went to speak to him, I was prepared for him to tell me that I just wasn’t qualified. To my surprise, when I told him how long I had been away from school, he wasn’t actually surprised. He told me that because of the work I did, I likely had the capacity to pass the class, I’d just need to work a little harder to “re-remember” that I knew it. He suggested two strategies. I had made some friends in the class, so he gave us permission to hand in one copy of the weekly assignments as a group. The second strategy was to go and investigate the tutoring opportunities my University made available to mature students. 2.) My university had several opportunities for mature students. They had regular math labs where people like me could go in, ask the most incredibly stupid questions and get really good answers. One particular graduate student helped me way more than I deserve and even took me to the bookstore to find a good introductory Calculus text. 3.) Working in the group was really amazing. First, I learned to trust myself. A large percentage of the time, I was actually doing things correctly. But, my time away convinced me that I couldn’t trust my instincts. Having two friends to say “you dumb fuck, you’re doing that right” helped so much. Second and most importantly, that first semester back was a huge shock and I wanted to drop out many times. Being part of a group where I had to meet up with two people twice a week kept me in school. 4.) “Re-remember” become a personal mantra. Writing that ‘word’ still hurts, but holy shit, was that ever an important concept for my ego.