I was always a good student; school was easy for me. But as I got older, math got harder. I just expected to stumble through math classes and not get the good grades I got in my other classes. One day at the beginning of 8th grade, I stayed after school to make up a math quiz. My teacher, Mr. Wilson, asked me, “How did you do?” I told him I didn’t know. He told me that I did know, and more than that, he said that I should be getting an ‘A’ on every test in his class. This shocked me. But it also awakened something in me. What if he was right? Turned out, he was. For that entire year I got an ‘A’ in math on every report card. I had never thought that was possible. All it took was a little hard work on my part and a teacher who encouraged me and held me to high expectations.