Back in high school, one of the more mysterious things I learned was sin, cos, and tan. Not how to sin (thankfully), but the trigonometric kind—those strange functions that dealt with triangles, angles, and numbers that always seemed to go in circles. Literally.

At the time, I often asked myself, “Why am I learning this? I’m not planning to build a bridge or launch a satellite.” But our teachers, with unwavering confidence, would say, “Trust me, you’ll need this one day.” I wasn’t so sure.

Years later, while I don’t use trigonometry daily, I’ve come to appreciate what it taught me beyond the formulas. It taught me how to solve problems with limited information, recognise patterns, and think logically even when things seem complex. It was less about triangles and more about training the brain.

And funny enough, those sine waves show up everywhere—in music, ocean waves, even in the rhythm of our daily lives. Life, too, moves like a sine curve: it rises, it falls, it loops, and it always finds its way back.

So, while I may not always remember the exact formula for tan(θ), I remember this: some school lessons weren’t just about the subject—they were about preparing us for the angles and turns of life.