In this prompt I write about a moment in my senior year in high school in which one of my teachers said some very meaningful.

During my time in school I was always uninterested in most of my classes, I barely scored an average of above seventy, until I approached the end of 10^th grade when I started handing in my homework on time while also paying attention to what my teachers were saying; Mr.Mavrommatis, my English teacher during 10^th grade was a strict but interesting person, and whenever he taught his lessons, it always had a philosophical twist to them, but due to my work ethic at the time, I put little to no effort into his class.  Once I hit 11^th grade, I started putting more effort in my classes, soon realizing I was not entirely an idiot, but again most classes were uninteresting to me besides my math class where the teacher managed to make math enjoyable to learn by being able to explain concepts thoroughly, while also mentioning interesting facts about what we were learning during class. When I went into 12^th grade I was lucky enough to have Mr.Mavrommatis as my English teacher again, and this time I had the chance to redeem myself. 

     Later during the year, he assigned my grade to read How We Know What Isn’t So by Thomas Gilovich. It was a book based on psychology in which I later learned that this is a book that psychology majors would have read at some point during their studies, and even though I was just a senior in high school, the book itself was engaging for a number of reason, one of those reasons being how it made me understand the tactics many politicians and media outlets used to push ring-wing agendas. Of course, there weren’t any political statements that Gilovich mentions, but a lot of the concepts he talks about are how humans have a tendency of following erroneous beliefs, and how our brains take in information presented to us.  

    He would assign my class a chapter each week for us to read and told us to write down any questions we had about any concepts brought up on any of the pages. The book itself was hard to read so he always expected questions. When he looked through my book, he questioned why I didn’t bother underlining any parts I didn’t understand or write down notes on the side, which I replied saying I remembered where I had questions. In return he asked which pages I didn’t understand, he then said to the class that I understood 100% of what the other pages I did not have questions on, and I would be answering any of the following questions. One kid then raised their hand and mentioned that he didn’t understand what the concept the card game was supposed to represent within that chapter. The teacher then walked over to me and handed me a piece of chalk and told me to answer his question. It was nerve-wracking, having to answer that question and I kept breaking up my sentencing while trying to write on the board, but after I answered my classmate’s question, I was congratulated by the teacher for managing to go through with answering the question without giving up, he then reminded me to write down my notes and underline any parts I had questions on. After that whole incident I kept that advice in mind. Along with always handing in the homework on time and asking questions about the book consistently, he became a nicer person to me over time and saw how I went from some student he had in 10^th grade who never bothered doing the work for his class to someone who showed that they put in effort into his class.  

     Even though I was put into the B class which were meant for the students who put minimal effort in school, and there were students in the A class who were scoring higher averages than me, he saw that I just was not just trying to put in the effort to pass his class, but as someone who enjoyed his lessons, and was always intrigued by what he had to say. Towards the end of the year, he wanted to see me after class to give me his letter of recommendation, I was a little confused at first since by that time everyone already sent their college applications along with their letter of recommendations out to all their colleges. He then told me that I wasn’t for that reason, but it was meant for me to hand it to someone later in life who doubted my skills, whether it be trying to get accepted into another school or a career opportunity, he told me to keep that letter safe and unopened. And to hear that the salutatorian, or even the valedictorian never even received such a letter, I considered it a special moment in my language/literacy narrative. Even though I was stuck in a class meant for those who put little effort in school, Mr.Mavrommatis saw a light within me that shined brighter than those who were considered the best of the best within my grade, it’s hard to put it into words how special that envelope is to me, and it means so much to me how out of all the teachers I had throughout school, he managed to push me further.