Don't let the Applied Math degree fool you... When I was in high school, I hated math.It made no sense to me. It didn't feel raw and intuitive like the stories and poetry I spent my time reading and writing, or inspiring like the landscapes I spent my spare time hiking. Not surprisingly, such impulses led me to a job guiding whitewater rafting trips on the Nolichucky River in East Tennessee. My first summer was a rainy one, and the job was all power, waves, and adrenaline. I thought I could handle anything. My second summer was a dry one, and the job was all patience, timing, and finesse. I was terrible at it. It took me most of that summer to connect with the water, to understand its movement and how my boat and I fit the flow.From there, I was hooked. I resolved to travel the country, rafting in the summer, skiing in the winter, and making those experiences my life. So, I loaded the station wagon, and off I went. But it only took a summer in Wyoming, and a winter at Lake Tahoe, to realize that I'd been missing the forest for the trees. I was drawn to structure, form, to finding that one crucial insight that makes the whole problem crystal clear. It wasn't the poet in me that was drawn to the river; it was the mathematician.With that realization in hand, I studied mathematics, statistics, modeling, prediction, learned that the world is full of fascinating problems, and that they thrill me as much as any white water rapid ever could. Now, I'm ready to make that my job. I long to join a data science team, to group around a table with a problem and get carried away by excitement until it's solved. I can't wait to push my skills and abilities to the next level. What I have to offer is not just the technical abilities I acquired in school, it is the drive, passion, and excitement that led me to them, and continue to lead me higher and further. All I need are problems to solve.To meet a problem solver with a creative mind, contact me at jbcooley7@gmail.com.