I held my breath as I watched the bottom left screen of my computer as it read, “Waiting for www.webassign.net” while it sent information through cyber space. I swear my computer has never functioned as slowly as it did then. My only wish in life at that moment was to see a green check appear next to this angular momentum problem, number fourteen of this Webassign.
The score box at the top of the screen currently read 13/17 (76.47%). I had already submitted four of my five attempts for number fourteen, which meant that if I got the problem wrong this time, this question would be graded as incorrect. When this happens, the dreaded red X appears next to that question. It surprises me I never had nightmares about this red X, since merely the thought of this marking made me cringe.
Every homework assignment in this physics class was on Webassign, a program I had never used prior to this class. My brother took this same class the year before and it seemed to “click” in his head as he easily received an A, without exerting much effort. Naturally, I went to him when I was assigned the first Webassign and asked for his help. He agreed to help me if I made him a batch of fudge. This seemed to be reasonable since after attempting the first problem, I wanted to pull out all of my hair because its extreme difficulty stressed me out beyond belief. He sped through each problem explaining things quickly and in about twenty minutes, he had completed the assignment with a perfect score. This would have probably taken me three hours to do and I was ecstatic to have that weight lifted from my shoulders.
The next day I had a pop quiz in class and I realized I had not learned much from what my brother had been rambling about as he essentially did my Webassign for me. I quickly realized that the only way to be successful in the class would be to delve into each problem with extreme perseverance. If I did not do this, every single problem would seem beyond impossible. Before that year, I had not taken any classes that challenged me the way physics did. Even though physics is not something I am very interested in, I applied myself completely to learning the material because I found it to be extremely rewarding to actually know how to do problems which had seemed impossible before.
After nearly turning purple from holding my breath for so long, the web page was completely blank for a fraction of a second. This meant the information had been processed and either the red X or green checkmark would appear almost immediately after. I worked on this one problem for at least thirty minutes and I knew it would crush my soul if that red X appeared. But it didn’t; the green check emerged on the screen and it was better than any present I have ever received. I was victorious…well, victorious on that one problem. That meant three more problems to battle through to achieve that perfect 17/17 (100%) that I strived for so intensely.