Many things in life come as a test to us. We are constantly being challenged to prove ourselves successful in whatever we do. A lot of times, we fail and lose what we were striving to win. Sometimes the fear of failure and rejection can be enough to keep us from trying to succeed. However, failing at something you put effort in is a lot better than wondering what if? I learned this from my experience with my trigonometry teacher Mr.Shah. I got my schedule a few days before sophomore year began. I scanned it nervously reading out loud the teacher’s names as I moved my finger down the page. There it was – fourth period, trigonometry, Mr.Shah. I heard many stories about how hard of a teacher he was. Even my brother laughed when I told him. I knew this was going to be a terrible year. A lot of my friends got Mr.Shah this year as well. The first day of call I automatically started to like Mr. Shah’s class. He seems like such a nice person. I easily got that he was very strict with grading and very serious about teaching. He told us all on the very first day to expect a very hard and deep into the topic class. He said we have to work a lot if we wanted to succeed. I knew he meant it. A few weeks later, it wa the night before the exam. I set aside six hours to study. If he wanted hard work that is what he will get. I felt prepared for the test the next morning. Fourth period came around sooner than I expected. I have been reviewing all morning but that test was crazy. I thought I did terrible. I felt defeated. He gave back our tests the next day and I look down at my test. A big fat 80 was plopped at the top. I wasn’t used to getting 80’s. I was satisfied, but not happy. All my friend, however, failed miserably. We all talked about our scores and they all decided to give up on the class since they lost all hope in succeeding. They tried to convince me to stop trying as well but I knew that I could push myself to do better. The next test came and I got a 96 on it, after staying up all night studying. My friends all got bad scores and complained to me saying how it’s unfair that I was smart and they weren’t. However, I was no smarter than they were. All I did was work hard after failing instead of giving up and not trying. I could tell my disappointed friends when they had as well.