‘When studying mathematics my biggest surprise was...’

When we studied maths at school, the subject seemed to be an endless rephrasing of the same problem, the problem of finding ‘x’. As we progressed through the years we gradually learnt new ways of finding ‘x’ in various guises. Sometimes in simultaneous equations, maybe in the angle of a triangle or the answer to a differential equation - but in the end, it was always was about methods of how to find and calculate ‘x’. Indeed for many people this is what maths means to them, the ‘finding x’ maths from school. This all changed when I came to study it at university. I found myself diving into exciting questions. How can maths solve a Rubik’s cubes? Can we colour any world map with only 4 colours? It became enormously abstract and we found ourselves encountering generalised versions of subjects we had previously only touched upon. Maths had become more exciting and engaging - but also a key change had taken place. Suddenly maths wasn’t all about finding ‘x’ anymore- it was about proofs.