In the first half of the second chapter of Lifeboats, Kit’s studying is interrupted by a surprise. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.Â
Oh, math. You are too much. I’ve generally been quite good at it most of my life, and perhaps some otherworldly force was trying to push me towards working with mathematics longterm, BUT NOT I. I RESISTED. KEEP THOSE EVIL NUMBERS AWAY FROM ME.
Okay, I’m being dramatic because – shocker! – I actually find it pleasing to do math. The problem is mostly due to the person I spoke of in the video for this section: my senior year Calculus teacher, who was perhaps one of the most evil people I had ever met. Her sole purpose in life, it seemed, was to make sure everyone knew that they were beneath her. She was cruel, often publicly so, and she always appeared to relish in crushing a student with her intellect. Once you’ve gotten to pre-calculus, calculus, and statistics, I think it’s safe to assume that a person has to be kinda good at math, or else how did they get there? Yet this teacher truly believed that no one knew what addition was, or couldn’t name a single integer, and definitely didn’t know how to operate basic functions on a calculator. She was arrogant, condescending, and perhaps the meanest person I’ve ever met.
She made racially-insensitive comment all the time. She picked on someone for a speech impediment. And she used to make fun of me for being unable to afford a graphing calculator. Those things were like $120-$150 each! That’s expensive to most of us, but it was nightmarish for me, since I was living on my own by that time. Yet she still made snide comments about me every time I checked one out at the beginning of class. SHE RUINED MATH FOR ME FOREVER, but I guess I turned out fine so WHO ACTUALLY WON.
Me. IT WAS ME.
SO, LET’S TALK ABOUT THE ACTUAL STORY. Mamvish, y’all!!! Mamvish appeared in KIT’S BEDROOM. I am guessing that the opening chapter of Lifeboats is the first real usage of in media res within this series, so… good gods, what the hell is this book going to be about? We’ve had a number of urgent situations dealt with across the Young Wizards novels, but this is the first time that it feels immediate. From Mamvish’s behavior, it’s clear that if there isn’t an intervention in the next day or so, some disaster will befall… a place? I feel like this is all the confirmation I need that the opening chapter didn’t take place on Earth, so there’s that! Otherwise, I have nothing else to go on, and I’M SCARED.
https://youtu.be/plD7-EXwZVA
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