Miss Universe, I just want to get to know you - by Madhu

“A large part of mathematics which becomes useful developed with absolutely no desire to be useful” — John von Neumann To spend hours wrapped in a proof or knotted by the origins and the fate of the universe feels like an indulgence to many, but it is one of the most beautiful gestures we can make to the universe—to say thank you for the richness you've afforded me, which I simply cannot reap in one short lifetime. Thank you for all your complexity, knots, and paradoxes that I may never be able to unravel myself—perhaps not even with centuries of collective human effort. Thank you for giving me so much to be curious about and in awe of. It is perhaps why I’ve always admired mathematicians and physicists. The pursuit of these subjects becomes a high form of spiritual practice, a profound way of saying I yearn to know you better, solely for the joy of understanding. So few places prioritize learning for its own sake. Nor have I felt that I deeply understood the subjects in any of my clas

“A large part of mathematics which becomes useful developed with absolutely no desire to be useful” — John von Neumann To spend hours wrapped in a proof or knotted by the origins and the fate of the universe feels like an indulgence to many, but it is one of the most beautiful gestures we can make to the universe—to say thank you for the richness you've afforded me, which I simply cannot reap in one short lifetime. Thank you for all your complexity, knots, and paradoxes that I may never be able to unravel myself—perhaps not even with centuries of collective human effort. Thank you for giving m