I am a 27 year old trying to go back to college after a long break from any formal schooling¹.

那时我已经27岁了，多年没有在学校里接受过正规教育，正为重返大学校园而努力。

I am taking a college algebra² class and struggling to keep up.

我学习了一门大学代数课，正竭力能追上其他同学。

I sit behind a young man who upon first glance looks like a thug or overall someone I would never think would be able to help me learn algebra . I was dead wrong.

坐在我前面的是一个年轻的男人，乍看之下看上去像个恶匪，无论如何，我绝不会想到他会辅导我学习代数。我大错特错了。

Today in class we were learning linear regression which requires a lot of specific inputs³ on a graphing calculator.

今天课堂上我们学习的是线性回归。这节课对我的空间想象力提出了很高的要求。

I kept getting a number that was thousands off of the correct answer.

我得到的答案总是跟正确答案风马牛不相及。

The “thug” that sits in front of me turns around and says “I got you bro. Let me see what you got.”

坐在我前面的“恶匪”转过头来对我说，“我挺你，兄弟。让我看看你算得怎么样。”

After about 5 minutes I was crushing these regression formulas .

大约五分钟之后，我已经能毫无障碍的驾驭那些线性回归公式了。

Now I know to never make a judgement on someone because of how they look/dress.

到那时我才知道，永远不要凭一个人的相貌或者打扮去评判一个人。

I dismissed a classmate in my college algebra class because of their appearance and was very wrong about my initial judgement.

我曾经因为相貌对大学代数课上的一个同学妄加评判，结果我的第一印象大错特错。这件事我一直铭记在心。