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From flunking Algebra to acing Geometry
Submitted by: Gabriel A
New YorkI feel like I can do anything
If I could describe how my algebra teacher last year could have described me I would say she saw me as someone who was dumber than a sack of hammers. You wouldn’t believe my report card grades in algebra. Here I’ll give you the order it went. 50,55,50,55,55,56. Would you believe me if I told you I was able to move on to geometry the next year. Well it’s true I barely passed my algebra finals with a score of 65. One might say that was just luck that spared me another year in algebra, I would truly believe that as well. But when I received that score I said to myself NO WAY. I believed I was way better than this. It was time for me to stop slacking off.
The next year I took geometry and guess what I barely passed the first marking period. I got a score of 65 for the first marking period. After seeing that grade my confidence dropped. For two months of paying attention I felt like I didn’t know squat about mathematics. I went to my father the next day and asked him if I could buy a geometry book as a study aid to help raise my grade. My father told me this in response, “Listen pal, you don’t need to buy more things that claim they will bring your score to a higher grade. You already have what you need. Your brain and your textbook. But if you want it for school I guess I could spare you a couple of bucks.” So I went to my local bookstore and searched around the store for the book I needed until I came across one bookshelf.
I had a gut feeling telling me I would find something here that would do the trick. There it was. The Secret. I bought the book instead of the geometry study aid book. Ssshhh don’t tell my father. I read through the entire book. I was hungry for the knowledge. After I read it I thought, is this really going to work? Might as well test it out. I imagined that I would cross a single dollar bill with George Washington drawn as an octopus. Three weeks later while I was eating lunch at school I was thinking about the dollar bill. One of my friends who does draw a lot said if I wanted to check out his sketchbook. As I went through the pages there it was. Taped to a page in his sketchbook was a single dollar bill of George Washington drawn as an octopus. In my mind I felt like I was sitting on a gold mine.
I found this thing that really works. My next thought was how do I apply this to school. Then I decided to set a goal. I wanted all my grades in geometry for the rest of the year to be at a score of 99. Everyday I pictured having that grade and visualized the expression on my parents face as proud parents. So on days I sat on my couch watching tv a thought would go through my head saying hey maybe you should study sum of those notes you wrote today. Why not it’s not like I have anything better to do.
When the day came to see my report card grade I got a score of 99. I was like WOW. The way I viewed the world just became entirely different. My grades overall put me not just in the honor roll, but in the principals honors. People felt good for me and I felt great for myself. Thank you for listening and bless you all.