Me, a Mathematician and a Rocket Scientist

While this may sound like the beginning to a bad joke, let me assure you, the characters you are about to meet are real and the story you are about to read is true.

For one delightful school year, I commuted from Fargo to Grand Forks to teach students about television. On a sunny August afternoon, half way through new employee orientation, our little group of 12 took a break to stretch and get water. The man at the head of the table neatly closed his folder and looked around the room.

“Does anyone live in Fargo and commute to Grand Forks?” he asked.

My head snapped up. Sweeter words had never been spoken – at least at the time. Immediately I revealed that I was one of the few crazy people who commuted the 78 miles to work – one way – every day. This man wanted to carpool with me. My mind raced to different thoughts, including: a companion would make two hours in the car each day fly by, we could both safe money on gas, we could save on the wear and tear of our vehicles.

I jumped right in. I could give you his long title and department, but the short version is: he’s a rocket scientist.

So Rocket Scientist and I found a park and ride spot in North Fargo and worked out a great schedule. We became fast friends and a support system for each other as we shared frustrations, hopes and triumphs during our hours in the car together. While visiting in our moving conference room, we made it through blazing heat, pouring rain and blizzard conditions.

Soon, our duo became a trio when we added The Mathematician.

Imagine the conversations between a communications major, a mathematician and a rocket scientist. I wish I had recorded some of our chats; we could have solved the world’s problems. We talked about our professions, how to deal with difficult people, about volunteer work, and we lifted each other when someone in our quirky little group was down. Since the three of us were teachers, we taught.

One day as I drove Rocket Scientist home from work on a Friday afternoon, he sketched a problem on a piece of scratch paper. Before I knew it, he had me calculating the Pythagorean theorem. Rocket Scientist wanted to determine the radius of a local television station’s viewing area using the height of its tower. (Don’t worry – we took in to account the curvature of the earth). With me as the driver and Rocket Scientist as the passenger, we figured out the problem together.

Did I mention I was a communications major? Though math was enjoyable at times (thanks Mrs. Sott), calculating while driving stressed me out.

A few weeks later when the trio reunited, Mathematician and I taught Rocket Scientist how to play Solitaire on my cell phone. Surprisingly, he had never played the game before. For days he asked to sit in the back and he would just play solitaire. You should have seen the look of joy on his face when he downloaded the game on to his own phone. That was a good day.

So, a communications major, a mathematician and a rocket scientist share a car on a commute… It’s not the beginning to a bad joke, just the start to one of my favorite stories.