Math was never my strongest subject. Ever. I’ve always been more of an English and history kind of student. I could get through a good chunk of my times tables and all the types of division, but the numbers, and eventually letters, started to get too confusing after a while. My geometry teacher, Mr. K, turned my math grievances into a strong love-hate relationship with the topic. My freshman year of high school, I had to take geometry, which I was not excited about. I struggled during the first few weeks when we had to calculate the area of complicated shapes and use sine, cosine, and tangent. If actually doing the math wasn’t hard enough for me, we had to memorize formulas and techniques that were just too much for me. The small amount of confidence I started the class with began to dwindle when my classmates got the answers to questions at half the rate I did. Taking tests and doing homework were always too difficult for me and my grade plummeted quickly. As the weeks went on, I found myself in Mr. K’s classroom during study periods, before the school day started, and doing extra practice at home just so I could understand the material a little bit better. I would struggle and almost bring myself to tears when I couldn’t figure out how to solve a problem. My teacher, Mr. K, was the most helpful and patient anyone could’ve been with me when I did math. He would crack jokes, play videos, and explain things slowly with different memorization techniques to help me remember them better. He always encouraged me not to be so hard on myself, which was difficult for me since I’ve always pushed myself too hard to do things perfectly. I had Mr. K the next year for my Algebra 2 class and you can’t imagine how excited I was. I finally enjoyed math and I didn’t need hours of homework and practice to understand. Even now, with a different teacher in a different kind of math, I still go to Mr. K when I need extra help with something because I know he’ll explain it in a way that’ll always benefit me. Math has become easier for me, I’ve shed less tears, have gotten better grades on tests, and memorized formulas easier. I’ve learned to not be so hard on myself when I’m learning something new because you won’t be perfect right away and that’s why you’re learning.