The first day of school nerves never went away, as they stayed in my stomach twisting and turning. I was embarrassed just looking at my schedule and seeing that I had to take two math classes a day. Freshman year I always had the feeling of being behind in math. I never wanted to show anyone my schedule, knowing that I was in the Foundations of Algebra class.

As eighth hour came around and I entered room 205, I didn’t recognize any faces. I sat next to this guy named Ben in the back middle row of the classroom. Then the teacher approached me with a welcoming voice and a soft smile. She said, “Welcome to Foundations of Algebra.”

I began to feel comfortable within the walls of this classroom and ready to learn math.

Each day the random strangers next to me became some of my best friends and the teacher soon became my leader. Mrs. T, as I would call her, asked me to ponder questions about math.

Not wanting freshman year to end, I was excited to see Mrs. Tiefenthaler was on my sophomore year schedule. I now had her for Geometry. It was held in the same classroom as last year’s class, but instead of eighth hour, it was last hour. I was so excited to have her again as she taught me to enjoy math, something I never thought could happen.

Before the dramatic fall of the pandemic, I would come in during study hall for extra math help. These few study halls allowed me to bond a stronger relationship with my teacher and allow me to understand math in a different way. I had many experiences in Geometry class, like meeting new friends and some occurring bloody noses.

As online school started to become more of a norm in my life, I had to push myself to get my school work done for the day. I always looked forward to going onto my Zoom math classes because Mrs. T always looked excited to see everyone and ready to teach math. Even though online learning was hard she always seemed to make it fun. She put so much effort into making people understand the concepts and extra time into her day for more online help.

Freshman through Sophomore year I've always felt welcomed and comfortable in math class. Even when sometimes I would struggle I never felt behind or left out. She helped me work harder and enjoy math rather than always worrying about the grade I had in the class. She always came up with many ways to make her class more understandable by always providing different learning tools to help everyone understand.

As the school year came to an end we never got to say goodbye to any of our teachers, so this is my goodbye to you. I would like to thank you for pushing me to always do my best and become more open minded with math. As you taught me to enjoy math just as much as you enjoy it yourself.