Some languages are more universal than others. 

What do memes and math have in common?

I give math a hard time every week, because it gives me a hard time too. That said, I don’t think everything bout it is a complete nightmare. To think where it came from is actually kind of cool. To ponder how many brilliant minds had to put their heads together through history in order to be able to build all the math textbooks we have nowadays. Those are centuries and centuries on end, pondering about how numbers can explain the world in a way that words cannot. It feels impossible when you get the alphabet involved, but it’s quite poetic when you think about it. 

Now, in all fairness, now that I am an adult, no, I have not been using all my quadratic formulas for daily needs. Especially with technology, I couldn’t say that every single math-related subject is exactly fundamental for every career, or for existing within a society. However, I would disregard it, too. I really do appreciate its nature. Think about it. Communication would be a lot easier if numbers were our language, and everyone understood them. That second part is the problem, though. The universal side of math is awesome, but the capacity normal people like me have to understand every part of it is honestly slim, to say the least. 

There are many ways to understand the world we live in, and math is one of them. Some people can really translate the shape of clouds and the color of the sky into formulas, and that is a superpower I wish I had. Even better, just like any other language, math also transforms and adapts to the changes of the world. In other words, the brilliant minds that see the word in a series of numbers keep adding some numerical magic to the complex wonders of math. Also, let’s face it. I might not be a math expert, but I have to admit it feels amazing to understand something you thought was impossible to get on the get-go. Once it clicks, it feels like moving forward to the next level in your favorite video game. 

In that way, I don’t exactly see numbers everywhere, even when I know they’re there. My superpower is not that one. On the other hand, I do see memes everywhere I go, so enjoy this excellent math meme collection that continues to prove there are many languages we can learn to speak, and not necessarily the ones we already know exist. Thankfully, comedy and numbers are two languages that are more universal than most.