When I went back to high school to visit some of my AP teachers after I graduated from college this year, I realized just how thankful I am for them. They truly prepared me to do my very best in college and instilled in me a love of learning. I think I definitely entered college as a well-rounded individual, thanks to the opportunities I had in academics, performing arts and sports. I don’t think I could say thank you enough to my high school teachers for helping shape me into the person I am today, but I'm going to try.

To My Former AP Teachers,

All of you taught me incredibly valuable lessons about the value of hard work, time management. But even more so, you instilled in me a love for learning and research. I did not have to take any history or English classes at all, thanks to my AP credits. And though that alone was helpful, I think the way your courses were set up were a lot better than most high school curriculums.

I still remember a decent amount of what I learned in your classes (because the information was pounded into our heads in the best way possible) and I highly appreciated the teaching style and insistence on doing practice DBQs, essays and other things that prepared us for the AP exams and college coursework. I thought that the amount of homework we had to do for AP courses was a bit extreme when I was in high school, but once I got to college, I realized that having that much work in high school helped me learn a lot about the importance of good time management skills.

In addition, writing papers and doing group projects in your classes prepared me for the amount of academic papers and group projects I would be completing during my four years of nursing school. The patient profiles I had to write were essentially 10-20 page research papers on my patient's disease processes. When it came time to write my 25 page honors thesis this year, I had a solid enough foundation in research and academic writing, which made writing a very long academic paper seem not that bad. I'm not saying that it was easy or inherently fun to write by any means, but it was not the nightmare I was expecting it to be. As much as I may have complained about the junior / senior exit project to my parents during high school, I found myself incredibly thankful for that entire process when I had to write and present my thesis. Again, the large amounts of course work and papers really did prepare me for college work and time constricts.

Thank you for encouraging us to try our hardest and come to class not just for the grade, but for the love of the material. Your AP classes prepared me incredibly well for the college classes I took. I had a solid foundation to build my knowledge in college, and a passion for learning as much as I could. To be frank, some of your classes were 10 times harder than my 100-level undergraduate courses. I know students might complain about these classes being too hard, but if they were any easier, I don’t think I would have been as prepared for college as I ended up being. High school isn’t supposed to be easy, it’s supposed to challenge you and get you ready for the rigors of college. I was truly inspired and encouraged me to try my hardest and not give up. If anything, the difficult classes taught me that it’s OK to not get an A on every assignment. You’re supposed to be challenged, and sometimes you don’t do as well as you want to on some tests. And that’s okay. It’s all about being humble enough to admit your faults, instead of blaming it on the teacher. I still utilize the life lessons I learned in my AP classes, as well as the helpful mnemonics and test taking strategies.

Thank you for preparing me for the AP exams, college and for life in general. I was truly blessed to have such incredible teachers. Each of you had a passion for teaching, maybe because you had a teacher who inspired you the way that you inspired me. Whatever your reason for becoming a teacher, I could not be more thankful that you chose to teach high school kids. I know we can be a handful and we come with a lot of drama, but keep loving us, don't give up on us and pray that we turn out OK. Even more importantly, don't give up on yourself and your career. You never know who you've impacted, and how.

Sincerely,

One Of Your Former Students