It was the first day of my senior year and I was headed down the overly crowded 6200 hallway to Math Analysis. The room was filled with familiar faces as I strolled over to take a seat next to my friend Taylor, who had helped me survive algebra 2 the year before. Naturally everyone was gabbing about their summer vacations when Mrs. Schneider, our teacher who looked like the iconic picture of a grandma sporting short gray hair, large silver glasses and an old embroidered jacket said “Everyone please take your seats, we are going to review the class syllabus, did anyone not pick one up?” as she looked around the room.
After the generic “this is due then” and the “that is worth this” we received our first assignment. I quickly scanned the worksheet and then looked around the room. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing unlike me. “Great” I mumbled to myself starring blankly at the page. I didn't even know where to begin which triggered the conscious thoughts of “Oh crap, I'm screwed” and “I need to drop this class A.S.A.P.” “So, how are you doing over here?” I looked up with an expression on my face like I had just seen a ghost, my teacher had just caught me by surprise. “Oh, um uhh, great!” I replied hoping she wouldn’t hover over my desk watching me as I tried to scribble something on my paper that would pass as an answer. Finally, what I had been waiting for all hour, the loud obnoxious bell rang and everyone shoved their binders in their backpacks and shuffled out the door. As the day went on, I couldn't stop thinking about my fate in math, I knew it wouldn't end good.
Later that day, as I was sitting down at the old kitchen table attempting to finish math, my dad barged in “How was your day?” interrupting my train of thought and instead of the normal “great” I broke down. “Horrible, I'm going to fail math, it's been decided, I don't know how to do any of this crap!” as I threw down my pencil onto the table and grasped my head with my hands in frustration. “It will be okay, calm down, it's just the first day!” I just looked at my dad and in my head thought “Yeah... you're right, it's just the first day and I'm already lost.”
As the year went on, it truly was a struggle. I did just about everything to keep my grade up where it would be considered acceptable. At the end of the year I looked back and all I got out of math that year was learning it just wasn't my thing.
