How my failures became my blessing by Elena

How my failures became my blessing by Elena - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

From a young age, I have always struggled with math. In elementary school, I dealt with fractions. In middle school, I dealt with algebra. In high school, I dealt with trigonometry. Even though I put in a lot of work and my parents took the time to sign up for extra help, I couldn't understand how to do math correctly.
In elementary school, I struggled with the simple things in math. Adding and Subtracting was easy for me because it was pretty straightforward. Multiplication and Division were slightly more challenging but it wasn't as bad as fractions. Fractions were the hardest part of math when I was in elementary school. The simple things like adding and subtracting them confused me and made my head hurt. When I had to multiply and use all of the extra steps I couldn't do it. I would constantly sit at our kitchen table trying to figure out the simple concepts. My parents decided to put me into tutoring but it did help quite a bit. Even though I had a tutor I ended up moving schools and I didn't have the tutor anymore.
Middle school was already a challenge. As a new kid entering into a new school for 7th grade I already was nervous about making friends. Unfortunately, my Algebra class was in the first period meaning I had to go every single day. My teacher was one of the sweetest teachers I have ever met but I still couldn't understand. The same thing that I experienced in elementary school was happening again in middle school. My parents encouraged me to go and talk to my teacher myself but I didn't because I didn't want her to see I was struggling in her class. I stopped doing my assignments to keep the peace and I would lie to my parents about how I was doing in math. Eventually, my parents found out and we had to have a conference with the teacher and how to move forward. We came up with a plan for me to see her every 4th period due to it being s study hall and I had to ask questions when I was having trouble.
Finally, something was starting to make sense. Just when I thought something was going right with math Covid-19 hit and everything became virtual. Being at home and having to learn Algebra 1 was a challenge due to the fact I had access to my phone and didn't have to turn on my camera I didn't pay enough attention to what the teacher was saying. I realized I needed to change my habits so I made sure to keep my phone away and pay attention to what my teacher was saying. I would make sure to ask and answer questions even if no one else participated. I ended up passing Algebra 1 and moving on to Geometry and Algebra 2 with no issue.
I had one more year of math to take so the math course that I chose was Honor Trigonomenty. Since I did well in Algebra 2 I figured that Trigonometry would be a breeze and similar to Algebra 2 but sadly I was wrong. I started to feel like an elementary school girl who didn't understand the simple concepts of math. I decided the best thing to do was to ask the teacher for help when I was struggling but even in those efforts I still wasn't understanding anything. I hated this feeling and I felt stupid because I would watch all of my other friends in the class get better grades than me and I wondered what I was doing wrong. I always made sure to study and do the practice problems before the test and I always did my homework but something wasn't right. I ended up making a plan with my teacher so I could figure out what would be the best way to pass her class. We decided that I would come see her once a week for tutoring and every time we had a test I would come see her. While this was a slow process it did end up helping my grade and I ended up passing with a B.
In all this I learned while something can be challenging I must stay determined. Whether I have to ask for help or go to class a little longer it will all be worth it in the end and I have learned something valuable that I can take with me throughout my life.