I was not the smartest kid in high school. Like many of my peers, I was more concerned at the time with trying to figure out who I wanted to be as a person and where I wanted my life to go instead of studying for my math test. In the long run, this was a bad idea. I had a lot of trouble paying attention in classes that I had little interest in, especially Maths and Sciences.

Towards the end of 10th grade, it looked like I would be graduating with a 3.6 GPA at best with high 80's and 90's in my History and Literature classes and C's in the rest. It wasn't my teachers' fault of course. I just couldn't focus on a lot of things around me. Studying is also a foreign concept for me. If I don't understand the concept hearing it from the mouth of a professional than there is no way I will understand it reading it in my head with my scattered thoughts doing flips.

Something happened, though. During my junior and senior year, my grades skyrocketed. Everyone assumed it was because of my new involvement in the school or because I had just started to treat school seriously. They aren't completely wrong about both of those, but in reality, it was something outside of school that was truly driving my renewed interest in learning. That thing was a YouTube channel made by Hank and John Green.

For those who have been living under an internet/millennial culture rock, Hank and John Green are two brothers who have become well known on YouTube for several channels that they host with probably the most well-known being VlogBrothers. John is also well known for writing books such as "The Fault In Our Stars" and "Paper Towns" while Hank specialized in funny YouTube skits and songs. They also are the founders of CrashCourse.

CrashCourse is an educational YouTube channel where Hank, John and many other professional teachers/speakers/celebrities have come together to teach courses on all kinds of subjects that can be viewed for free. I first started watching it in my free time when I was in my junior year and found their videos on U.S. History. I loved them.

It was learning, but in a fun way that reinforced what I learned at school and gave me a fun way to remember it all. When I took my History final that year I made the highest grade that my school had ever seen on that test. From there, I jumped to World History and then to their two Literature courses and then to Biology and so on with me jumping to whichever course was most relevant to the classes I was taking now. No more C's and B's for me. It was high 90's across the board for almost all of my classes, including my college Dual Enrollment ones.

To this day I still watch CrashCourse in my free time just because it reminded me how much fun learning actually can be. So I just want to say to John, Hank and the whole CrashCourse team: thank you so much. If it was not for the hard work that has been done by everyone at CrashCourse I and so many other people would not have the free and amazing education that has given us the push we needed to succeed in life. Thank you so much.

Please, if you haven't seen it already go and check out CrashCourse. I guarantee they will something that interest you. If you like what you see then please donate, no matter how small amount just anything you can, to their Patreon so that they can keep making learning free for everyone forever.