After moving across country from seattle to Boston I was having a really hard time with everything, but most of all adjusting to my new highschool. I started my freshman year at this school and I didn’t feel wanted. I put so much pressure on myself to be wanted by them that I could not even focus on my grades. That was a year of a lot of tears, and anger. My parents would get emails saying that I did not do the assignment, or that I failed quiz a, or failed paper b. The staff and the teachers belittled me and treated me like I was a child. I decided to switch schools and start high school all over again. It was a great decision. The only problem was that they put me in the most basic (not college level) classes. I started to learn that if others didn’t like me than why would I want to bother having them in my life. I started to feel better, my life started to come together. Still nobody was pushing me to succeed, people had such low expectations of me.
In terms of math, they thought putting me in a “regular” class would stress me out. They put me in a curriculum that was way too easy and it started to sink in that nobody believed in me. It frustrated me when I took the MCAS and scored higher than my peers. I took matters into my own hands. If nursing was in my future, and if I wanted to learn math, It was essential to move up. I walked into the math office, pretending I had all the confidence in the world, and asked to talk to the department head. The teacher said, “That’s me” and immediately with a lump in my throat, said, “My name is Galya. I am moving up in math. I can absolutely do it. I promise you.” At the time he did not know who I was, but he said, “If you have the confidence to tell me that you believe you can do it, I would give it a try.” The moment was exciting because finally an authority had confidence in me.
People told me, “the summer study is not an easy path”. I ignored them because I was determined to succeed. It was not an easy summer study, but it was doable. I worked everyday of the summer for an hour, sometimes two hours a day. As a rising junior, I was in college prep, trying to move up to advanced college prep. At the end of the summer, we had to take a final to be placed in the higher level. I passed the final, and moved up in math, with a teacher who believed in me from the start. She told me that if I could do a math summer study like the one I did, I could succeed in her class. I felt lucky that my hard work paid off. After getting all A’s in junior year, it was agreed to let me try to move up again. The department head was shocked, yet impressed that I wanted to do it again. My junior year math teacher kept telling me that nobody has ever done this. I did it though. It was all me.
If I had not stood up for myself, I would have been less successful than I am today. This whole process has taught me that if I want something, I should stand up for myself. I will tell you that now I just finished my freshman year of nursing school, and I did really well. So if you are reading please know to stand up for yourself because look where it can get you!!