I love math. At least when I left high school I thought I did. I’d play with numbers every day, and in class I’d look at equations and mouth off the answers. I loved math. I played with my calculator and discovered wonderful things like 1÷81. I got accepted by UC Davis as a pre-computer science and math major. I wasn’t really in the program, but if I proved myself in the next two years, the school would let me continue to get the degree. I entered my first calculus class thinking with overly exuberant expectation, “Yeah, this will be my easy A.” The first test proved this assumption to be false, and in case I thought the first test was an aberration, I did equally poorly on the next one as well.

But I was resilient and studied hard. Not that I was a particularly great student, but I slowly understood how to study and with each test made improvements. The result of my labor was that I happily received B grades—that is, until I reached Math 108–“Transition to Advanced Mathematics.”

I was finishing my second year at UC Davis, and this class was proving to be the hardest one I had encountered to date. I was quite literally failing. On the first midterm test I scored 20 percent (the average was around 55 percent) and on the second test 22 percent (average 53 percent).

The class didn’t involve solving problems with equations; we studied theorems. We worked on entertaining problems like proving that “If AxB=AxC and A is not equal to 0, then B = C.” Seems easy and obvious, doesn’t it? Well that’s what I thought, too. My roommate pulled out my book, looked it over and said, “Where are the numbers?”

The final was three weeks away. I had two choices. Give up and take the class again or study really hard and (most likely) fail and have to take the class again. I was thinking I’d go ahead and fail. But I had read somewhere that if a student finished all the required lower division courses at the end of the second year, that student would be permitted to enter the computer science and math program. Anyone not finishing all the courses would be evaluated based on grades and available positions. This math class was my last required course.

I had a new mission in life. I completely ignored all my other classes and focused on this class. For three weeks I never closed my textbook. I was in my professor’s office every posted office hour. I was in his office for many of the non-posted hours. I was a nuisance. I think he dreaded coming to his office. I studied continually.

The day came and I felt ready. The final was placed before me and it looked simple. I answered everything as if it were elementary school math. It was the end of spring quarter, warm outside, pleasant smell, the test hour passed, and I was happy. The next few days I hovered around the professor’s office to see my results. I waited and even had lunch in the hallway. The day arrived and the professor posted the results. I had achieved a C-! I was ecstatic. I must have aced that test. I shouted and did a little hallway dance.

I saw the professor and proudly asked, “So how did I do?” I was thinking that he might say something like “My goodness, you’re a genius. You’ve been hiding your talents all quarter.” But he looked at me and said simply “You got a C- on the test. I’ve taught this course for years and I know that people sometimes take a while to catch on, but I’ve never seen anyone go from as bad as you were doing to something reasonable. I’m going to take a chance and pass you.”

I was floored. I was obviously not the genius that I had hoped to be. But I was also surprised by the kindness that the professor had shown me.

The postscript to this episode was that I did get admitted into the major. I was never a stellar student, but I was never close to failing again. I graduated and entered the workforce. Besides having fun every day working in the computer industry, every year I have either earned letters of commendation, received company awards or submitted patents. I am having a wonderful and successful career. Because that professor gave me the benefit of the doubt, I was able to advance.

Being a student at UC Davis was a lot of work for me. There were some good times and some not so good. Fortunately I had the pleasure to be this professor’s student. His goodwill made me feel better whenever times were rough. Now I’m a manager, and when I have a new person come in who is not doing well, I think, “It’s just a matter of time.”

Ari Polidi ’87 is director of applications for Horizon Navigation. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Mountain View.