Tech Diving 101

An English major goes back to math class

Deco hang. (photo: Chris Winters)

I’ve never been good at math. In high school, I made it as far as Trigonometry and narrowly passed that. When I entered university, I intended to follow a pre-med path, with a major in Psychology. First semester, freshman year I signed up for some mandatory classes—Statistics and Elementary Logic, both of which involved ample number crunching and arcane concepts. I barely made it through the second week. Ahead of me I could see years of chemistry and advanced math classes and that sent me running, screaming, for the College of Liberal Arts and an English Lit major. In the end, I think it was the right choice.

In the years after getting my diploma, I wallowed blissfully in the world of words. I wrote poetry for small local journals, got a “real job” writing technical manuals, then marketing copy, and finally embarked on a freelance career in watches, gear, and adventure. Then, a novel. I had successfully dodged math for decades, letting technology calculate tips, balance the checking account, and convert measurements. It was all fine until I decided I wanted to take up technical scuba diving.