Greed

It has been more than a decade since that day,
It was after one of those earlier semesters,
The ones when I would take five courses,
One after another,
From early in the morning till early in the afternoon.
Then I would be in the Math center,
Tutoring one student after another,
Discussing the same problems over and over,
Till nine p.m.
Weekends meant reduced working hours and no classes,
Time to study, write papers, and do projects.

I was usually the first one to open up the center,
Before attending my own classes,
Before my supervisor showed up.
I was the last one to close up.
All of that for the precious price of minimum wage,
Five dollars and fifty cents per hour, to be exact.

That was fine with me then.
After all, with no degree,
And no work experience in this country,
My choices were limited.
Maybe I could be a cashier, a waitress, or a babysitter, instead.
At least, "I am in an academic environment",
I would remind myself.
"I can study when things are slow",
Hardly that ever happened.

One of those semesters was over.
All of a sudden,
I did not have much to do,
Till few days ago,
all I wanted was to catch my breath,
and then I did not have much to do.

So, I decided to take a walk,
Towards the college,
Except this time slowly and leisurely,
Hoping that I would see some familiar faces,
Of friends or colleagues.
Maybe we could chat over a cup of tea or coffee,
Without me worrying about time.

The school was deserted.
No one was there.
The center was closed.
The cafeteria was empty.
Only the administration offices were open for registration,
and the bookstore for limited hours.

Suddenly I felt sad.
It was as if nothing had happened during the past few months.
It did not matter that I worked so hard, for so many hours.
They would have still managed to pass their courses.
What difference did it make?

Did I really have to repeat my pizza story so many times,
So that they know why anything divided by infinity is zero?
"Suppose you have ordered a pizza.
If you share it fairly with your roommate,
How big of a piece will you get?
What if you had two other friends over?
What if you had to share it with fifty people?
A Hundred?
...
Try infinity."

I would see a light bulb turning on over their head,
and that was priceless.
I wanted them to be friends with equations, integrals, and derivatives,
Maybe they would find math an entertaining game.
Oh! How silly I was.
It did not really matter.
They were all gone.
It was all history.

Soon I was on my way back.
"I will go watch a movie, or
maybe borrow a book from the public library".
As I was deep in my thoughts,
A car stopped in front of me.

It was one of my old students!
A middle-aged man,
Who struggled with his afternoon math courses,
After his daily full-time job.
He asked me if I needed a ride.
I thanked him, "I am actually enjoying the walk".
"I just wanted to stop and thank you for all your help last semester", he said.
"I would not have been able to make it if it were not for your help! I thought I come buy my books early and prepare for my next math class during the break."

I could not feel happier.
Whoever was running the show up there,
Read my mind, and gave me an answer,
In real time, on the spot!

We departed and I continued walking,
While still enjoying what had just happened.
I thought maybe sometimes you get what you wish for.
I knew it was too good to happen often.
We must have a few of such chances.

I forgot how I was feeling earlier in the day,
and how happy my student made me feel.
I was getting greedy.
"Only if I had asked for something else!".