Before I dig into this, not EVERY teacher I had in high school didn’t help me in one way or another, or that every class I went through was a negative and awful experience due to the teachers I had. However, after going through the past few years of college, it’s crazy how much teachers impact on our entire learning experience and environment. There has been a point, or many points, where I felt that I wasn’t smart enough to be in the classes I was in or wouldn’t ever compare to the people all around me who seemed to get it all so easily. I’d look around and see all my friends and peers doing so good and earning a 4.0 as if they could do it in their sleep, while I was over here struggling to even remember the basics. I felt like it was my fault and that I couldn’t compete with them on that level and that was something I would just have to accept. But I couldn’t feel more differently about that now. Paying attention and putting forward an actual effort to be great at school is definitely something we partially have control of. Most of the time, it comes down to how hard we are willing to work, but one of the most important things I could take from my experience in high school is that it is not entirely on you.
One of the best examples of this was every math class I had in high school. Unfortunately for us, high school comes with quite a bit of distractions from the actual “school” part, plus math has always been a subject that I have struggled with. Whether it was not being able to understand it or just getting caught up in my head and being anxious about it… I’m not sure. But either way, it was terrible. I failed Algebra 2 two times at my high school before eventually passing (barely) while taking it online. I knew part of this was my fault because I didn’t put as much as well as I could have, I blamed myself completely, and was left feeling very discouraged and frustrated all through high school when it came to my academics. Over the last few years I realized this truly, truly played more of an impact on my life than I thought. Looking back on it now, it’s so easy to see how much this hurt my confidence. This all changed when I started my freshman year at Central Washington University. Entering college and finally getting teachers who truly helped me to not only understand the material, but also helped give me the motivation to want to learn was so amazing and I had never experienced that before. It is a night and day difference between the two amazing math teachers I have had here at CWU compared to the ones I had in high school. The difference it makes on your academic experience, when a teacher breaks it down and cares about you understanding the material, is incredible. Something so important I learned while dealing with all of this is that yes, of course you need to put forward effort to be successful in school. But when you find a teacher who knows what they’re talking about and couldn’t care MORE (in the words of the great Mr. Sund) about your learning, the change it brings to your confidence and success with school is a matchless feeling.