Math: A Word Problem

I must say that Life is a Word Problem, and I was never good at Math or Word Problems, therefore I struggle with life, which is just one big Word Problem.  I quit school half way through my junior year.  I have lots of reasons for quitting school, one of those reasons being....WORD PROBLEMS that haunted me from day one, and the never ending class of General Math.

I hated school from the first day of first grade.  The only redeeming factor about first grade was my teachers last name.  Her name was Mrs. Nestle, which reminded me of chocolate, which I happen to love, even back then.  And like chocolate, she was very sweet.  I cried every day at school, and she was very sweet to me.  Mrs. Dennison, my second grade teacher was not sweet, she was even more bitter than bitter-sweet chocolate.  I didn't like her, and I cried every day in her class too.  Mrs. Ensminger was the sweetest of the sweet, and I cried every day in her class too.  Mrs. Murphy, she was just flat out mean, and I was too afraid to cry in her class, so I toughened up in fourth grade and didn't cry anymore.

Then along came high school.  The days that I showed up were just awful.  General Math awaited me.  Word problems were meant to torture those of us less fortunate than the brainiac kids. Coach Hewitt didn't like me when I first arrived in his class my freshman year, and he liked me even less when I appeared again my sophomore year, and he really didn't like me the first half of my junior year.  Not only was a math idiot, I was not of cheerleader quality. I was doomed, and I was taking him along with me into doomnation.

Some nightmares continue to show up in our lives, and math, accompanied by word problems are stuff that nightmares are made of. At least for me they are.  Just tell me the numbers involved in the equation and let me go from there.  I don't think the alphabet, or words should be involved in math equations.  I don't even care how fast the train was going, and I care even less what time it arrived at the station, at the speed it was going.  And PLEASE don't throw in useless information to confuse me more. It doesn't matter what color the train was. Just give me the schedule for the train, and I will be at the station to meet it.

Last night I was visiting with a friend, and she was telling me about a fund raiser that her daughter was having at school.  For some reason unknown to me, I decided to tell her what the profit would be for this fund raiser.  What in the world was wrong with me?  For me to do this, I had to create a word problem that involved numbers, and words, and useless facts, like that all the roses were red. I don't know what possessed me.  She didn't even ask me if I knew, or even if I cared what their profit would be.  BUT, I jumped on that train that was speeding to the station, at the speed of what, I did not know, and I will never know, because I don't care.  I created the following word problem all on my own, and still got the wrong answer.

 A group of students had a fund raising project.  They purchased a dozen roses, and paid fifteen dollars for the dozen.  They sold each red rose for two dollars a piece.  What was their profit?

My answer to that question, that was never asked, and I should never have offered an answer to, was that they made a profit of fifteen dollars.

You do not want to know how I arrived at that brilliant answer, and because you do not want to know, I am not going to tell you.  Create your own word problem, and figure it out for yourself.