Good ol' Pythagorus, I will be faithful as you have been

I never thought I'd end up taking classes like physics, calculus, or chemistry. In high school, my favorite classes were English and history. I hated math. I wanted to be a high school English teacher for a long time. I also wanted to be a cowgirl singer, a movie star, or a cashier at taco bell so I could wear a purple shirt. I don't really know what other career options I considered. But it was a while before I decided I wanted to end up in the health care field.

That all being said, the purchase of my first calculator in the sixth grade didn't seem like such a monumental event. It was only needed to get me through the next few years of math, and then I'd be done with it. Well, I was wrong. Good ol' Pythagorus (for short: Gus) has become a dear friend. He's got 'MLA' written on his cover, like Woody's got 'Andy' scrawled on his boot.

Gus has been here for me since I was twelve. All the years of algebra. And then physics, trigonometry, calculus, biology, physiology, biomechanics, microbiology, statistics, nutrition, chemistry. What a great sport he was. I've taken many frightening classes, classes I've felt too dumb to be allowed to take, let alone succeed in. But having something familiar with me is very comforting. Oh, old buddy.. He fits into my hand just so, and I feel like I can conquer anything thrown at me. As long as I've got my friend, Gus, with me. I've even picked up other TI-30Xa calcs and known, without glancing at the blank cover, a desert of teal (beautiful color, by the way) sans the 'MLA' scrawl, that they were not my Gus.

I've even trusted him with my personal affairs: finances, random math questions, etc.

Have the smarty-smarts pulling out their Optimus Prime graphing calcs laughed** at me for keeping him? Yes, a few have. Do we care? No. We are a team. I don't need something younger or cooler. Pythagorus tells me everything I need to know. And we know how to work together; if you handed me your spiffy, uppity Optimus, I frankly wouldn't know what to do with half the buttons. He's such a superfluous waste of space. He's big, chunky, clunky, and ugly. Pythagorus is sexy--sleek, sophistocated simplicity. Vintage is the way to go.

**And I'm actually laughing right back at them because they paid ~$130 and I paid zero

So, here's to the TI-30Xas and all those guys that have stuck with us from the beginning. Pythagorus will never die on me and I will never trade him in! Compare his good looks to those lacking in Optimus: