Every once in awhile I find myself sliding into that disgusting comfort of stereo-types and I always hope that someone, somewhere, will be able to surprise me out of them.
Thankfully, I go to community college.
Every Tuesday and Thursday night I drag myself out to an obscure supermarket and hike my way past four different Korean barbecue joints and two tattoo parlors in order to sit for two and half hours and "learn" math.
My math teacher is exactly what one expects when one thinks of someone who essentially volunteers to teach higher-level math. I'm sure he can't be in it for the money...there is no money for community college professors.
In anycase, this man is tall, lanky, and awkward. He bumps into things that aren't even threatening to get in his way. His favorite trick is to simply stand still, and then suddenly hit his head on the overhead television. He has shoulder-length hair that is, indeed, unkempt. It's shiny though, and full, so it makes his face look that much more emanciated, which makes his eyes look that much more caffeine crazed.
He wears tight jeans, a mistake for someone who resembles a green bean, and generally reminds me of gumby if gumby still had his mom dressing him.
He isn't really a teacher type. He mumbles and has trouble communicating simple concepts like "take one and pass it around". He rushes through his lessons without realizing people are in the classroom with him - just so he can get to something really obscure and strange - then talk about that in detail for an hour before he announces "But you don't need to know this, I just think it's neat."
In short he is a skinny, pale, gawky nerd.
Who, one day as I was getting out my calculator, four notebooks, three text books and numerous erasers, shocked me out of my plastic yellow chair by walking into the classroom wearing a thick Harley-Davidson motorcycle, his helmet held jauntily under his arm.
In truth he looked more like a modern Don Quixote than a Hell's Angel, but it was the fact that this is his normal mode of transportation - in the middle of November - that really shocked me.
He's still kinda a nerd...but he's a nerd on two wheels. And that makes life worth living just a little bit more.
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*laughs* I ride motorcycle and work at a music school. My husband is a math professor and rode motorcycles long before he got his PhD. I just decided to google math motorcycle to see what I'd find (I was hoping for some math-oriented motorcycle t-shirt) when I instead came across this post.
It's fun to confuse people. They always look at us in surprise when we're in gear. When we're in our winter gear (leather jackets and all), people do double takes.
Btw, I am *not* making fun of you. I'm just giggling because this isn't why I ride, but it is one of those extra perks. I'm such a goody-two-shoes type person; I mean, I ride my motorcycle to knit night, for crying out loud!
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