Attitude by tia

Attitude by tia - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Pre Calculus gives you the background for the mathematical concepts that you'll use over and over in calculus. In the past I’ve heard people tell me that senior year is the easiest year in high school. For me senior year was totally different. There were many things that I thought hindered me my senior year such as, my precal teacher, the precal class, and my counselor. I haven’t really struggled horribly in high school but when I got into precal my whole demeanor of school changed. The first day of precal we were doing a lot of work which I knew we would do because of the teacher I have. I was already confused on the first day. I wondered how is it possible to be confused on the first day of school? That is what precal did to me.

My teacher is a man who I also had in the tenth grade. I’m a nice person and I have a lot of friends but me and this teacher didn’t always get along. I struggled to understand why we didn’t get along much because any teacher I’ve ever had has loved me. This teacher was different. He would teach precal in the most complex way and I didn’t understand him at all. I was so stressed out in the first quarter of school I went to my guidance counselor. I was going to switch my class to a math tech class. I was very excited to drop precal because I didn’t want this class to hinder my GPA. I had colleges to get into and a horrible grade in precal wasn’t going to get me in. Later my guidance counselor asked me to come back to her office and I could not be happier for her to tell me I can drop my class. When I got to her office she says what she always says “Hey Tia how are you doing today with that pretty smile of yours” and like I always tell her I’m doing fine just ready to graduate. She tells me she has bad news and that is when I realize I’m going to be stuck taking precal my senior year. After I heard the news I was so upset I knew everything was going to go wrong I was going to fail, my GPA was going to drop, and I wasn’t going to get into college all because of precal.

My counselor told me that I should get tutored by my teacher and he says that I don’t ask enough questions. I try to explain to her that I’m not the only one who is confused when he teaches. The thing about this teacher is that there are lots of people who feel the same way as me, but I tell her I understand where she is coming from. I know I should get tutored but I don’t like this teacher and I don’t think he will be able to teach me anything. Precal was just too complicated for me and I was set on failing it. I wouldn’t try to do homework or classwork. I was going to fail.

Attitude is everything. The test came back during second nine weeks and I failed it. My grade in this class was a D. My grade in every other class I had was an A or an B. I continued to downfall in precal until I met a woman who really inspired me. She told me that I can’t put anything off on my teacher. Whatever grade I want to make I will make it if I work hard enough. My whole attitude changed after she talked to me. I actually started to study and I asked my teacher questions. I stayed for tutoring on certain days and my grade steadily inclined. I felt really successful and I also got into 3 out of the 4 colleges that I’ve applied to. I was motivated to work hard to get into that last college that was my number one pick. I had to do great in precal to make it into this very competitive school. I would go home and be proud to tell my mom the grade I made in precal. It’s all because I changed my attitude.

I’m still in precal and I’m getting better and better everyday. Some units are harder than the rest but I don’t fail anymore I pass. I’m still studying and I have a better relationship with my teacher. I thought my senior year was going to go downhill because of what I thought was hindering me. I thought my precal teacher, the precal class, and my counselor were setting me up for failure. After a little talk with a great woman I realized it was me who was setting myself up for failure. My attitude was everything. It wasn’t great at all the first two nine weeks and I knew I was going to fail my precal class. After I had my come to God moment with a sweet lady I changed my attitude. After my attitude changed my grades changed. I was successful in what I did in precal and my grades went from one D and the rest A’s and B’s to all A’s and B’s. My attitude had failed . Once it changed everything improved and my lesson was learned.