[Picture ID: Facebook comment by Mason:
What I hate is that when I say I study mathematics I usually only get two responses:
1) "Oh! You must be very smart!" which is annoying because I don't consider myself intelligent just because I'm good at one subject. I also don't like to have my ego inflated, and responses like that don't help.
2) "Oh! I hate math!" which is just a stupid thing to say about a subject after your told that it is someone's livelihood.
On the off chance that someone actually says, "Oh! That's cool, what do you study specifically?" The question inevitably comes to "How is that useful?" since so many people have been taught since elementary school that math MUST have applications or it's not worth studying. I've only found two or three people who make it that point of the conversation and genuinely find interest in the topic, and one of them is my wife lol!
Long story short, mathematics is a lonely field, which is hard when you love talking about it.
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