It’s been seven years since that fateful career fair where you settled on math You took some more math classes in college and you just kept taking more cause you couldn’t get away from the stuff. Normal calculus, optimization problems, or numerical algorithms were fun but you truly fell in love with number theory. Something about talking about prime numbers and writing proofs just really got your heart racing all the way to grad school for a PhD specializing in cryptography.
You’ve been so busy, you haven’t seen your family since your cousins wedding last Spring and have barely talked to anyone outside of your research associates. Your world is filled with fever dreams of the Riemman Hypothesis and quantum computing resistant encryption ideas, further isolating yourself from society and any long lasting relationship with normal people. You made a point to drive home for Thanksgiving and you can finally catch up with not only your parents and siblings but even some of your extended family!
Your mom gives you a hug, you all sit down to snack on artichoke dip and she asks, “Tell me about school! What are you researching? Solve any cool calculus problems lately?” the room laughs and waits in anticipation. What do you do?
Sure, I’d love to explain my research
Oh I don’t know, it’s so complicated and specialized now, I don’t think y’all would be interested