Dear wonderful math teachers who I most certainly took for granted in high school,

I cannot thank you enough for the lessons you taught me. From looking over my work, to memorizing the quadratic formula, to always showing every step, to adding "+C", I will forever be thankful for you and your teachings. At the time, I didn't realize how important it was to pay attention in class and do every homework assignment, even if it wasn't going to be graded. But looking back on the class, I am thankful you encouraged me when I wanted to give up and forced me to do days worth of Khan Academy (Who am I kidding? There is no way I can forgive you for the Khan Academy). Without the dozens of times you proved your work with intimidation, or times you made a mistake that we corrected – let's face it, that's the only reason I paid attention in class – I would not be able to proudly say I got a 102 on my first calculus exam!

Thank you for staying after school to help me with my homework. Thank you for letting me retake or make corrections on tests. Thank you for understanding when we needed a break to have a snowball fight. Thank you for giving us points just for writing our name. Thank you for challenging us by giving us incredibly hard extra credit problems. Thank you for showing me how to change my calculator from radians to degrees for the millionth time. Thank you for celebrating pi day and making us pie! Thank you for making annoying, yet way too hilarious math jokes like "She went off on a tangent".

I can not thank you enough for putting me through torture in high school. I promise you, all your teachings have been put to good use in college.

Sincerely,

A student who most certainly did go off on tangents

Ps. If you've mastered all of Khan Academy, you are the smartest person person out there. (Yes, the photo above is my ingenious high school calculus teacher.)