1、   We expected our first child to be perfect. ”How many parents have said. or at least thought. those words? Most likely every single one.

    I know that’s what I  36  with our oldest son，Joe. He was always a  37  kid. He wasn’t the kind of boy who  38  snowballs at passing cars on a cold winter day or who  39  water balloons on the mail carrier from an upstairs window during hot August.   40  he wasn’t perfect. From the day Joe started kindergarten. he  41   －with maths. Always maths. While he passed each grade，it was never with flying colors，and he was  42  at the top of his class. How I  43   friends who had children with the. ”maths gene”. I don’t know how many times I  44  while listening to another mom telling me that her daughter was doing high school algebra while in sixth grade.

    After hearing one of these stories―and there were so  45  of them over the years  46   hang up the telephone and took over at Joe―who would be happily playing a video game，drawing a picture. or simply  47   a warm spring day－ and  48  why we didn’t raise a maths genius. How is he ever going to get into college if he doesn’t get  49  at maths?

       Needless to say, my worries never really amounted to much. Moms 50   to worry and worry, while whatever they are worrying about usually disappears on its own or is quickly replaced by another  51 

    During high school，Joe slowly improved at maths. He  52  algebra  l， geometry and algebra l , our state requirements for maths. One day he said to me：“I would be taking pre-calculus(學習微積分前必修課程)in my last year of high school. 1 want to do really well in college. Morn，I know it will be hard but I  think it’s a 53  that I try to do my best. ”

    No，my oldest son wasn’t perfect. He ash’s a maths genius，either. But he knew what was important：he Was focusing on his future while I was worrying over his  54 . Joe was trying to do his best even when he knew how hard that was going to be. And that, to me. is even better than being  55