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I am a licensed middle school math and science teacher, but I'm only teaching science now. Some of you may not know, I have taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade math in the past. 

When I was in middle school, I was an average math student. My grades were usually in the B range. In high school, I continued as a B student except for Geometry. I loved Geometry - I earned 100 on all the tests and usually got the bonus right, so my average for the year was 107 or something ridiculous like that.

When I got to college, things changed. I struggled with Calculus (Thank you Sir Issac Newton). In my first Calc class, I got a 13 on the first major exam. I was lost. My professor was not helpful but 99% of the blame falls on my shoulders. 

I was afraid. 

I was afraid of failure - but I was failing in a big way. 

I was afraid to ask for help. I was all mixed up.

Instead of taking steps to un-mix myself, I hid. I avoided the problem. I wished it would just suddenly make sense. Of course, I was doing nothing to make it all make sense. I just tried not to think about it. 

Guess what? 

It did not get better. It did not “suddenly make sense.” I failed. I still have nightmares about that struggle and it was a loooong time ago. 

But, I learned from my disastrous experience. 

I took the class again, this time with another professor. I asked for help as soon as I started feeling lost and confused. I went for extra help. I asked questions. 

This time, I earned a solid B. It was hard, but it was not something I could not do. I just needed to take action. I needed to face my problems and solve them, often with help from friends, the professor and his teaching assistant. 

It’s hard to face failure. It’s hard to admit that you don’t understand. It’s hard to ask for help.

We all fail. We all have things we don’t understand. We all need help sometimes. 

We just need to be brave enough to ask for help. We need to take action and not hope it gets better. 

Ask the questions. Admit you don't know it all, yet. Raise your hand. 

Be brave and you will be sucessful.