Day 15: Graphing Calculator

Most people don't have two graphing calculators. In fact, I would venture to say that most people don't have even one.

I got my first graphing calculator my freshman year of high school. It was a hand-me-down from my older brother, who somehow managed to convince my mom that he needed a whole new calculator (a year later) and that I should be stuck with the old one. Not only is it demeaning to still have second-hand items forced on you past elementary school, but I found out later that the connection feature was broken. The metallic tip on the transfer cord had gotten stuck inside of the calculator sometime before it came to me. So not only was I stuck with a hand-me-down, I was stuck copying the quadratic formula program manually into my calculator instead of playing Tetris during study hall like everyone else.

Then, sometime during my senior year of high school, one cheap, red lollipop and I managed to screw it up worse. As I was leaning forward to type something into the calculator for homework one day, lollipop in mouth, gravity took hold and a nice stream of sucker-infused spit ran down right onto the keypad. I don't remember if anyone else saw it happen, but it was disgusting. Like, really gross. Worse, I was pretty sure I had just broken my calculator. Then again, that would mean I'd need a new one, right?

Wrong. Some hand-me-downs just won't die. They are the cockroaches in the world of sibling possessions. The calculator graphed and calculated just as well as before. All I got out of the lolli-spit incident was sticky keys and the occasional ant.

When I left for college, I tried to pawn off the calculator on my younger sister, pulling the same trick my brother had pulled on me four years prior. Only this time, it didn't work. She got a fancy new one, and I continued to be stuck with crap. Yet more proof that I would make a terrible lawyer.

Finally, a few years ago, I resorted to simply asking for a new graphing calculator for Christmas. I recognize that that is an incredibly nerdy thing to ask for, but you have to understand that I am incredibly nerdy person. Plus, it's easier to balance my checkbook when I can see everything I've typed in before I press enter. So when the time came, and I was handed a "number-related" present, I was a little more giddy than is appropriate for a non-math major. I pulled off the wrapping, ready to stare through hard plastic packaging at the subtle curves of my new, state of the art TI-83. But instead of plastic and shine, the calculator just lay there in a recycled shipping box. I turned it over in my hand, dingy gray, scuffed plastic and crevices filled with glue residue, to find someone else's initials scratched into the back. Usually, I try really hard to look excited about a present, even if I don't like it, but I couldn't. Fate (and ebay) had screwed me once again. I'm all about reduce, reuse, recycle, but that cycle has to start somewhere, and for once, I wanted it to start with me.

Now stuck with two crappy calculators, it seemed only logical to keep both of them and use them equally often. Clearly, though, that logic was faulty. It's like keeping two dead-beat boyfriends because they're equally dead-beat. I guess I could just get rid of both of them and buy a new one myself...but where's the fun in that?