One of the most positive things that I think of when I think back to my time in high school was the quality of the education I got. The reputation of the curriculum of the Naperville public high schools is no lie; it prepared me well for life in college. But the curriculum alone was not nearly enough to prepare me; my preparation was due to the excellent teachers I had throughout the course of my high school career.

As I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline the other day, I came across a video someone shared of elementary and high school teachers sharing the daily struggles they encounter in their profession. But afterward, the camera crew decided to have some of the students surprise of each of the teachers by coming out and sharing all that their respective teacher has done to help them grow not only as a student, but as an individual. Needless to say, this video showcased exactly why teachers do what they do, despite the obstacles they may encounter.

As I watched the video, I couldn’t help but think back to all of the impactful teachers I had in high school. The ones that focused on how well I understood the material and my overall learning experience instead of only the letter that appeared on my transcript at the end of the semester. The ones that genuinely cared not only about my education, but also my growth outside of the classroom, and trust me, that wasn’t all of them.

One of the most impactful high school teachers I had was my algebra two teacher. Every day in class she would have us do a “brain break,” which was something we would do for about five minutes each day to take a break from math. One day, during our “brain break,” she had us watch a video, which showed a man upset that he was stuck in traffic, that his coffee wasn’t made right, and that his morning overall just was not going his way. As he sat in traffic, the camera flashed over to a woman in the car next to him, and above the woman’s head appeared a sentence that read: “Just lost her job.” The camera then flashed over to someone else in the same vicinity, and a sentence appeared over his head that read, “Just had a loved one passed away.” This cycle repeated itself for a few more minutes until the video ended. My teacher explained that what we could take away from that video was that yes, while it is easy to complain about the little things, there is always someone else that is going through something much worse. I learned so much more from that five-minute video than anything math-related that day.

I never got the chance to personally thank my math teacher, or many of the other past teachers I’ve had, but they truly have had a significant impact on the person and student I am today.