New school, new people, and a completely new environment. It was the first day of middle school and I refused to go. I didn't want to meet other people or make new friends. I just wanted to go back to my old school and for my agitation to just go away. After I tolerated my first period, it was time for math. Math has always been my favorite subject in school. Maybe it was because numbers form quicker in my brain than letters or maybe it was because I liked how everything fit together, but struggling in math was never something I had to deal with. I figured it was the only class that was going to keep me sane all day. Everyone had to take a test to get into the math class because that was how the advanced system worked, but I needed to take a test and have my previous math teacher recommend me into the course since my prerequisites were unknown at this school.

I walk into my classroom and my new teacher welcomes me to everyone and tells me to take a seat. From the looks of it, everyone was fascinated by her so I figured that I would like her just as much. I look around and start to talk to a few people and notice that a lot of the people in the class seemed to be surprisingly nice. I knew that first impressions were important so I straightened myself in my chair, and started to answer questions, not just for the teacher but also for the kids in the class. At first, I was getting every single question right but then my streak spiraled downhill and the teacher's questions seemed to be more targeted towards me and started to get harder. Maybe it was because I was the "new girl" and was raised to certain expectations, or maybe my teacher just wanted to test me and I saw no wrong in that. All I knew for sure was that she didn't seem happy with my current progress and constantly brought me over and constantly said things like "you would not be in this class if you didn't know the answers."

Everyone started to glare at me and they didn't have the type of impressions I was hoping for. Some kids walked around the hallways saying "is she even supposed to be in this class" or "why is she so dumb?" I even had the people in my own class tell each other how "annoying" I was and later, my teacher started to agree with them. I never fully disagreed with anyone because I tried to look at it from their perspective and stayed quiet in class and decided to not answer questions again. My teacher thought that was unacceptable and called on me more than anyone else in the classroom. I never complained when I went home or to my friends. I simply took her tests and responded to her. Finally, we started to test on all of our topics and I ended up getting mostly C's, D's and rare B's to start off with. I was never proud of those grades and my confidence started to go down little by little. She pulled me aside and said, "I knew you couldn't do it and in high school, you won't be successful if you don't drop out of this class and some of your other classes now."

I walked out of the classroom holding back my tears refusing to accept what she had just said since not only have I never had a teacher say I wasn't able to do it but no one had ever made me feel like I had lost all my potential. She told me how much she cared for me and I knew telling someone they can't do something is the exact opposite of caring for them. From that day on to the end of the year, I was terrified to go to math. I started to become very close to certain people as time passed by and told them what I thought of my teacher but all they did was laugh as if it was a joke and told me I was being ridiculous, but halfway into the school year, I was positive of what I felt and that I was being treated differently. It made it no easier when I was constantly being minimized by everyone else and how it ended up being my math teacher and the students in the class vs me. If a student in the class laughed at me for either not knowing something, the teacher would laugh too but it was too subtle for anyone to realize it wasn't a joke. At least for me, it wasn't. Finally, finals came around and I was expected to get a 95 or higher on the test or I was supposed to leave the advanced program even in high school. I thought she made this rule for everyone but when I asked people, it turns out I was the only one with that "deal." I never thought I could do it since that was a high expectation but once I scored a 97 on the final, I never benefited in any way because I was asked if I cheated or how I did that. Most didn't believe me so I decided it was best to keep my scores confidential instead of "proving" people wrong. I left 7th grade with a weight on my shoulders and a burden that I am still carrying to this day.

What she thought was best for me was to tell myself that I could not do it. What she thought she was doing was helping me improve. What she especially said and thought was that I would not be successful in high school. What I really did was learn to not let words get to me so easily. What she really taught me was how much potential I had inside of me and how I will never settle for any less.

I'd much rather thank someone like this than to ever prove them wrong.