The Limit Does Not Exist

By Shriyaa Madangopal

Can you solve the following? lim (x->0) [ln(1-x) - sin(x)] / sin²(x) 

Maybe, if you're more of a Caroline Kraft than a Cady Heron when it comes to maths, you can’t solve this question in a matter of seconds. Maybe, if you resonate with someone who wouldn’t even be in the mathletes in the first place, much like myself, you would probably think STEM careers like medicine and engineering are off the table for you. Perhaps, you wouldn’t even consider a career in this field since humanities are your area of expertise, but the essays after essays may make you question if it’s all worth it. So, should you even try for jobs like law, education and social work? Well, if none of these are for you, maybe you have a passion for the arts but face constant fear of the unpredictable nature. So, unless you find a super niche career that is completely your calling and of course has a high pay, you may feel like there’s nothing out there for you or you’ll have to settle for a job that you are unhappy with.

As much as I would like to believe that maths will have no place in everyday life, limits like these aren’t just for calculus they are sadly embedded in most of our mindsets. This past term has been filled with chatter about trials, year 12 graduation and of course the main event, the HSC. When entering “Girl World” or high school, there are lots of rules I didn’t even know about, one of them being facing a question that I personally dread: “What do you want to do with your life once you’ve finished school?” I, for one, have certainly heard enough of this and I’m not even taking my exams yet. If you’re incredibly indecisive just like me, this answer may fluctuate each time but when considering my limits that I’ve put in place for myself there’s not a lot of careers to fluctuate from. 

The question, “What do you want to do with your life?” already stresses me out enough when trying to form an answer but the way this question is posed makes it seem like an exam I write once at 17 will set my entire life course. I approach one decision and that’s my final outcome. But, in the wise words of Cady Heron, “If the limit never approaches anything the limit does not exist.” 

Life is an endless limit with endless books to read, songs to dance to, places to travel, instruments to play and languages to learn. With every new stage in life comes new opportunities to seize and one day tell great stories about whether it's a great case won in a court, a life saved in an operating table or an adventure in every corner of the world if you don’t allow your own made up limits to confine you.

Now I’m not saying you need to try every single career in the book or master 100 different skills to truly reach your potential but if we’re still drawing on Mean Girls, Cady once said, “All you can do in life is solve the problem in front of you.” There are many people like myself who wait all day for 3:15pm, all week for Friday, all year for summer, all of high school for university and it gets to a point where you’re waiting your whole life for the right moment to just present itself in front of you. When you let your limits confine you and believe that a singular path that your 100% content with in life will just come to you, we get nowhere. So, take every opportunity you can and if your limits never approach your dreams, your limit will not exist.