Calculus and Creativity by Marilyn

Calculus and Creativity by Marilyn - July 2026 Scholarship Essay

I was scrolling absently on my phone when my favorite golfer, Nelly Korda, popped on my screen for a post-match interview. The interviewer was asking for advice for his young nephew. “Golf is a game of creativity,” She replied. She stressed visualization and imagination over countless numbing reps. I took her advice out on the course the next day. However, Nelly was speaking about more than just golf. She was giving the world a new approach to problem-solving.
I started calculus in the fall of my senior year. I liked math; Algebra II was fine, geometry was fun, and it came more naturally than history did. As the start of the semester grew nearer, the phrase “AP calculus” seemed to ignite panic among my friends, family, and peers. They were cautious of the journey my class was about to take, as it could make or break our GPA. My boyfriend cheered me on, saying, “Math doesn’t make sense until you get to calculus. You might find it interesting.”
August came and went, and I was beginning to understand why calculus was panic-inducing for many. Limits–the first topic of the course–made no sense on the page. I bumbled my way through solving them, and couldn’t even think of how to get better at them. All I could think of was one of the concluding scenes from Mean Girls, which I had never even seen. Algebra was algebra–a strict set of rules and routines that I could easily follow. Calculus was testing how I approached math, how I imagined infinity, and how I study. By October, I had flunked my first test. Curve sketching, C-. I had two more months to figure out how to speak calculus before the final.
Derivatives, despite the need for memorization, were fun. During lecture, I found myself harkening back to the advice I had been given at the beginning of the semester. Concepts like slope, tangent lines, trigonometry all had the explanations that they had lacked before. The steps to finding a solution were no longer just the steps they had been in algebra II. They represented a beautiful, perfect system of numbers and shapes that was not invented–it was discovered. I had an appreciation for calculus, once I had learned the language. It was more than just numbers. It forced me to think deeply, which led to a rewarding experience that sparked my real appreciation for math.
Upon studying integration, I remembered what Nelly said. Her emphasis on creativity was truly about being able to make creative solutions to problems–just like integrating. From there on out, I thought of calculus just as I thought of how to land my ball on the green while avoiding the pond. Similarly, when my boyfriend told me that calculus would explain math, he was really saying that calculus would allow me to explore beyond arithmetic. Math, as I had known it before, only gave me methods, facts, and the monotonous routine of solving equations. Calculus is a game of creativity that strengthened my critical thinking skills. After taking calculus, I’m not only more fond of math, but I am confident in my choice to study chemistry.