Especially when it comes to subjects. Whether they're the ones we love or the ones we hate the most, I have a story about two subjects that have consistently impressed me throughout my school journey.
I don't know why I consistently preferred language classes to math. This is what happened when I was in my second year of junior high school. Initially, I felt like my second year at school was going well, until math class, when I was asked to come to the front to work on a problem the teacher had set.
I was speechless. My other two friends had already finished their problems, while I was helping out at the blackboard. Our math teacher approached me and asked why I wasn't working. I honestly said I couldn't. Yes, I couldn't grasp a single word of what the teacher was explaining. Then, one of my classmates, who was in the same class at the time, shouted from the back, "She was the top student in my class in first grade, Ma'am!"
The math teacher was shocked. How could the top student not be good at math? Had I cheated on the semester exam? She accused me at will, and I felt humiliated in front of the class. This destroyed my interest in mathematics. No, not interested, exactly. But it gave birth to a new trauma in my head. No matter how hard I tried to learn math, it felt like my brain was blocking the way to it. It was as if there was an invisible barrier saying, "Math is forbidden!" So I gave up on math for the rest of my school life.
But that didn't mean I didn't try. In third grade, as the national exam approached, mathematics was one of the subjects that received extra hours to prepare for the exam. And I was a student who, according to my new math teacher, was told to be very diligent. There was a day when I couldn't attend extra hours because of a flood, and the new teacher asked why my diligent self wasn't visible. (I learned this from my friend the next day.) I was deeply moved at the time. It turned out there were still teachers who were patient with this stubbornness me. At least I kept trying as hard as I could, even though I had to accept the fact that I wasn't good at math.
But linguistics was a different story. From elementary school through high school, I always had a favorite language teacher, and we were close as teacher and student. I was always enthusiastic and active in class during language lessons. Reading, writing, and poetry brought me to the point where it's now my daily life. Part of my work revolves around it. I love it, and language has become a part of my life.
So, in conclusion I always get the best grades in language or linguistics and the worst in mathematics. Thank you for all the good and bad experiences during my school years. I will keep them all wrapped up in a beautiful box. As life lessons. Thank you for writing this contest. Have a great weekend.
