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Cho Liam


Nocturne of perseverance

The classroom’s silence was so thick I felt as if I were suffocating. The only sounds were the frantic scribbling of my pen and the frustrated sighs escaping my lips. The problem glared at me, a fortress of integrals guarding the secrets of planetary motion. For about an hour, I'd assaulted its walls, wielding theorems like battering rams and shooting calculations like arrows. 

 

Each attempt was to no avail and was becoming slower and weaker. I was feeling so small in front of the colossal giant of math. Time was ticking, I was on the brink of giving up, and the moon had arisen. 

 

Just when I was going to succumb to the question, the moon shone brightly upon me. It sent shivers down my spine, and something clicked. "Voila! This is it!" I whispered, convinced I'd finally breached the barrier. I thought I had the solution! But then, a new wrinkle emerged on my forehead, as the paper exposed a deeper, darker layer of complexity.

 

Frustration nibbled at the edge of my focus. The clock ticked relentlessly, mocking my withering hope. Sweat beaded on my palms, mirroring the condensation forming on the half-empty coffee cup beside me. My notes had devolved into a battlefield, littered with discarded calculations and ripped notes. Again, just as I was about to concede defeat, an alternative approach gleamed on the wind of exhaustion. 

 

Caffeine surging through my veins once more, I approached the problem from a different angle. Equations morphed again, dancing on the pages, using the light as a chandelier. Hours passed, and doubt slowly crept up on me. Nonetheless, I pushed forward, with newfound determination. 

 

Just then, ‘it’ happened. The numbers, shining like stars, aligned. The lines intersected. As the solution, sleek with its form and simplicity dawned on the battlefield, standing elegantly, emerged, I was swept over by a wave of emotions. It was as if I could hear Chopin’s Nocturne in the quiet classroom. “Finally!!” I shouted out loud, my words echoing through the empty classroom to the hallways. It wasn't just the problem solved, but the journey itself – the struggle, the grit.

 

 As the final stroke of the pen formed the answer, the moonlight retreated; sunlight yawning on the paper, painting the solution in its warm gold light. But even with the exultation, a question lingered. ‘Was it truly me reaching the end of my wits, or merely an inspiration coming by chance?’ Perhaps the answer doesn’t matter. What mattered was the hatching of an egg. I had learned a lesson: Whatever path it may be, even in the darkest night, a solution would await, shadowed, waiting for me to again illuminate the power of perseverance.

 




Envoyé: 14:18 Sat, 23 March 2024 by : Cho Liam age : 17