I took it ALL wrong!

Two months back, my cousin, LA, graduated from that other state institution in Tallahassee (FSU).  As a graduation gift to my mom, LA fancied up the canvas you see above.  I've always been a sucker for mixed media, but more importantly -- 
You see, my mom is a math tutor.  She has been since I was a little kid.  Growing up, it was normal to have a classmate, teammate, or neighborhood friend sitting at the dining room table with my mom after school.  Papers would be spread out all over the tabletop and I could see calculus, algebra, trig, or geometry being explained page by page as I came home from practice and put away my lunch bag.  Up to my room I'd scurry and contemplate my own assignments.  

My mom would help a student understand math.  She didn't seem focused on the final result.  She really focused on comprehension of the subject matter.  I know that students she tutored got to points in exams where they could do more than 'plug and chug' and they could actually problem solve.  For many years I relied on doing example after example after example (much like mile after mile after mile) so that when I saw a math problem in an exam, I would substitute new numbers and values for ones just like I had practiced.  I got the answers right and I got As in math, but I didn't quite understand the math aspect.  I was really good at patterns and getting a result.  I trusted my mom and the patterns got harder. 

I knew my mom was good at what she did and I relied on that sometimes a bit too much.  It would be late the night before my own math exam and I'd rundown the steps and plea for immediate help.  Some reason I wasn't getting the right results when I'd compare my answers to the back of the book.   She'd want to explain the process to me and give me analogies of how math was like cats and dogs.  I'd get so aggravated!  "Mom, I need the answer.  That's all.  The test is tomorrow and I need to know how to spit out the answer." 
She wasn't a fan of this and I took it ALL wrong.  For awhile there, I thought my mom didn't too much care about results.  I thought she was solely focused on the process.  She'd look at the problems I needed to complete and understand them in the big world of mathematics.  I needed the immediate outcome.  I needed the result. 

My mom also tutored my cousin, LA - the girl that painted the "Results Matter" canvas above.  LA got it ALL right.  My mom focused on the process and fully understood it to get the result.  Every time.  LA, thanks for really understanding and expressing it so vividly!  You got it ALL right (well, maybe except for that FSU decision, haha!)