Math has always been my best subject in school, however I never really enjoyed it. Showing on the first day of junior year had me wondering, what was I thinking? I had signed up to do two math classes, pre-calc and AP Statistics.

This is going to be a long year.

I had pre-calc first period and stats third period. First hour went by and it was just the same old boring math class. But stats was different. The teacher seemed really weird, unlike any teacher I’ve had before or any person I’d met before. He was very awkward, but he was doing it on purpose, and he made incredibly bad puns that you couldn’t help but to chuckle at. It was a different atmosphere than any other math class I had taken, yet it made the class fresh and fun.

We sat in pairs, so everyone had a partner. On multiple occasions every class, Mr. O would have us talk to our partner about a problem on the board, or a thinking point that he would give us. Me, being more on the shy/antisocial side, didn’t always say a whole lot during those times in class.

One day, a few weeks into the year, Mr. O told me to stay after class to talk about something. What could I possibly be in trouble for? He had a serious look on his face, one that I hadn’t seen before, which deviated from his normal goofy charisma. He said to me that he didn’t think I was putting enough effort into class. He would notice that when we talked to our partners, he would see my partner trying to talk to me and I wouldn’t even look at him when he was talking. This really opened my eyes. One, it showed that he cared about his students and he is very observant about what can make the class better. Two, it changed my philosophy on school. Since that moment, I have tried to be more social with the people around me.

Another time he had pulled me aside at the end of class once again. I had struggled finding worth and importance in turning in homework, and I had missed a few assignments in a row at that point. I knew exactly what he was going to say—I was going to get chewed out for not turning my homework in. But he didn’t. He was very positive. He said that I was a great student and he was 100% sure that I could get a 5 on the AP test (the highest score). All I had to do was put some effort into the homework.

Him saying that gave me the confidence and motivation to start putting more effort into the class. And above that, it showed me that he really cared and this was the first time that I felt that way for a teacher before.

I am thankful that I had Mr. Olenchek as a teacher, it was the first time I genuinely enjoyed a math class.