Can Late Bloomers in Math Find a Future in the Field?

[Gryph]

Hello physics board members,

I've always enjoyed looking through the posts on this site, especially the ones regarding advising, since everyone who replies is genuinely helpful and gives good advice. Well, I'm in need of some. I've recently gone back to school after a long hiatus due to personal issues, and starting back up at the nearby technical college taking classes.

I've never been much good at math, or at least, I don't test well on it. Once I'm in a class being taught, I understand it and appreciate it, but when it comes to testing I have problems. For one, this problem has landed me in Math 101 at the college, one of the developmental classes. I previously had no interest in math, and accepted this class yet another one of my "not good at math" moments. But recently, in class I've begun to get the concepts quicker than usual. Perhaps that's the wrong phrasing, I've enjoyed getting the concepts, which causes me to get them quicker. My life hasn't been quite so stable, but focusing on the problems and working them out comforts me and has started to become enjoyable.

I can tell you my life story and all that's going on right now in school and such, but the bottom line is, this recent enjoyment for math is something new, and something I enjoy. Now, my first question is could this just be because it's bringing the concepts I learned from high school back to my memory (since it's a developmental class), and that's why I'm understanding it more, and enjoying it? Maybe I'm just enjoying it now, and it's simple because the topic itself is simple, not say something like calculus or topology, which I've never touched.
And my second, and perhaps more pressing question, is that is there a future for someone in mathematics, even if they started in essentially remedial math before they got the swing of things, and really enjoyed the subject?

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, both supportive, or if you think it's a lost cause, I appreciate both sides.

Thanks

 

[Dishsoap]

No one can tell you why you enjoy math; that's a question you need to answer for yourself! If you think it may be something you enjoy, try taking classes with new material, and see how you feel! And all of us started in remedial math at some point, some of us before others. You need to start there before working your way up. When you do it doesn't matter. You are definitely not a lost cause :)

 

[Gryph]

Thank you for the supporting words, they really helped boost my confidence. I've never held much interest or been good at math. I think I got something around a 400 on the math part on the SAT and a 19 on the ACT... I think, it's been a while since I took those, or I've been in school, hence me taking a basic algebra class in college. I did get an award for highest verbal grade, but my math, especially testing on it, has always been a bit lacking.
Which is why I'm here now with my questions and discouragement. I was going to go into nursing, but I've started to find that math has started clicking (or at least the math from my developmental class) and I actually enjoy working out problems, more so than my biology classes. So I'm just lost (and a bit puzzled) with this new development in my interests, and didn't want to focus on it or start getting really into it if there was no future for me higher than the simple algebra I'm at now. I'd love for there to be, but the past speaks differently