I learned a lot today. The first thing I learned was about “knowledge.” See, so far, most of what Uncle Jake has taught me about being a warrior has been exactly what you think being a warrior is. Like being strong and knowing how to fight. Everyone knows a warrior has to do those things. DUH!
But what a lot of people don’t know, and I know I sure didn’t, was that a warrior has to be SMART. Uncle Jake told me about all the things you have to know when you are a soldier. Things like this:
1. One gallon of water weighs 8.35 pounds, and the average person needs at least one half gallon a day to survive. Soldiers have to know that so they know how much water to take on missions. COOL!
2. Warriors must know how to read a map so they know where they are and how to get where they are going. Did you know in the military they don’t use feet or yards or miles to measure things? Instead they use something called a “click,” which stands for “kilometer.” It is a little bit shorter than a mile and is made up of 1,000 meters, which are a little bit longer than a yard.
3. Warriors need to know A LOT of stuff about electronics. Like how to work satellite radios. Did you know the satellites that a radio uses to talk are in “geosynchronous” orbit around the earth? That means they are 22,000 nautical miles (which is like a regular mile, but a little bit longer) above the earth, and they stay at that same spot above the earth the whole time. WOW! That even sounds smart!
4. Warriors have to know history so they can learn what worked in past battles and what didn’t. Did you know that it is always better to be on higher ground than your enemy? TRUE!
5. Warriors have to learn other languages so they can talk to people in other countries they travel to. Did you know hujambo means “hello” in Swahili—the language they speak in Kenya and some other parts of Africa? Wicked cool!
6. Finally, and most important, a warrior’s best weapon is the mind. They have to use their minds to figure out how to beat the enemy: How to catch them off guard. How to attack where the enemy is weak. How to OUTSMART the enemy. You can’t do that if you aren’t SMART!
Warriors have to be smart, which means they have to learn a lot. UH-OH! I know what you are thinking! I already told you that I’m not smart. Like I said, I had a HORRIBLE year in school. I don’t even know my times tables yet!
But wait! I learned something else today—something very important: I learned how to learn. When I told Uncle Jake I wasn’t smart, he laughed. He told me he didn’t do well in school, either, when he was a kid. School just didn’t seem important to him then. But when he got in the Navy, he realized he HAD TO LEARN a bunch of stuff. Luckily, one of his boot camp instructors taught him how to learn.
Uncle Jake asked me which number was the hardest to learn the times table for. For me it was the eights. There is no pattern or anything to them. They are just crazy. Crazy eights.
Uncle Jake went to my mom’s desk and brought back some three-by-five index cards. He told me I was going to make flash cards. I told him I already had flash cards that they gave me in school. He said that those didn’t work. I had to MAKE them.
So I started, writing the problem on one side and the answer on the other. 1 × 8 = 8. 2 × 8 = 16. 3 × 8 = 24. 4 × 8 = 32. 5 × 8 = 40, all the way up to 13 × 8. I told him we didn’t have to know 8 × 13. He told me he didn’t care! I didn’t even know what 8 × 13 was AT ALL. He told me to figure it out. So I added thirteen eights until I got 104. Then he made me make the flash cards over again, but with the 8 first. 8 × 1 = 8. 8 × 2 = 16. All the way to 8 × 13 = 104. And when I got to 8 × 13, I remembered it was 104. Wait! I think I LEARNED it.
When I was done, Uncle Jake picked up the pile, shuffled the cards, and started holding them up in front of me, testing me one at a time. If it was an easy one that I got right, he would put it on the bottom of the deck. If it was a hard one that I didn’t know, he made me figure it out by adding eights and then put that card only a few cards deeper in the pile so I would see it again soon. The next time I saw that card, like 8 × 7, I would remember a little better that it was 56. He would then put it a little deeper in the deck.
Eventually, when I REALLY KNEW the card and answered it as soon as I saw it, he would put it in a separate pile on the desk. That meant I knew it.
After about fifteen minutes, every card was in the “I knew it” pile.
Then Uncle Jake picked it up and went through the whole deck again. I only missed 8 × 6 and 8 × 12. He put them back into the deck and the next time I remembered them. 8 × 6 = 48 and 8 × 12 = 96. Every other card was in the “I knew it” pile.
He then picked up the “I knew it” pile and went through it again. I GOT THEM ALL RIGHT. EVERY SINGLE ONE.
“See!” Uncle Jake said. “You’re not DUMB. You just need to APPLY yourself.”
“What does that mean?” I asked him.
“It means work hard. Focus. Give one hundred percent. You see, no one is BORN knowing the times tables—or anything else! You have to LEARN and you have to learn EVERYTHING. That means you have to actually study and work until you know. Of course, this will be easier for some people than others.”
He then explained to me that every person has stuff that they are good at and stuff they are not. Some kids can learn more easily. Some kids can run faster. Some kids can do more pull-ups. Some people are even naturally good at everything. He also told me that I was naturally good at drawing. He has seen some of my artwork from school and other drawings I made around the house. He asked me if I practiced a lot to get good at art, and when I told him no, he said I was a natural. Then he told me that just about anybody can be good at just about anything—if they work hard.
He was right. Here I was, ten years old, and I had never actually focused on learning the times tables. I just thought I should know them like my friend Joshua. He seemed to know them as soon as he saw them. I thought I should be the same way. But that isn’t the way it works. You have to apply yourself and work hard to learn things.
And that’s the last thing I learned today. I’m not dumb. I’m actually pretty smart. I learned the eights 100 percent in about twenty minutes. I just need to work hard.