Throughout my education career, I have had an innate skill in the subject of mathematics. I have always been fascinated with numbers since I was five years old. Math has taught me that it is my strongest subject. Math has also taught me that I can lead in groups and help others with his or her problems. I always excelled in math courses. At a young age, my mother would buy me Reader Rabbit CDs—which were educational activities to play with on a computer. These instructional guides helped me realize that math could be fun. Playing train games evoked me to think logically and have fun simultaneously. Once I entered the third grade, my teachers noticed that I had a special talent with numbers, so they recommended me for a gifted program. I have also had the opportunity to participate in the Duke TIP Talent Search in 7th grade. This took students who were in the gifted program to attend a college for six weeks. To qualify for the opportunity to go to the college, I had to take the ACT and make 15 or higher. Luckily, I made a 21 on my test. During my stay at Appalachian State University, I took a Mathematical Concept course with 10 other students. That experience helped me to grow in Math and broaden my knowledge even more. Since then, I have been one grade ahead of my graduating class in math. Now that I am a sophomore taking junior/senior level math, I have learned that math can be challenging. For example, I received a 50% score on a Rationalizing Polynomial Fractions test. By receiving this grade, it humbled me. I realized that I still had areas of growth in this subject that I loved and accomplished so well. I also learned to accept constructive criticism with humility from teachers and those in authority realizing that even in my strong areas, I still needed to work harder. This low score actually became a metaphor and motivation for my life choices and experiences. Being great in math also showed me that I have good leadership skills. For instance, in my Pre-Calculus class, my teacher arranges our desk into groups of four on a regular basis to solve problems. This fosters collaborative learning with others. I have noticed that I tend to lead these assignments. For example, we had a Trigonometry and Radian Circle Relay Race. For this activity, my teammates and I had to finish a problem the fastest and also be accurate. In each group, we had to have a team leader who will lead and take the answer to the teacher. I was chosen as the leader of my team and enjoyed having fun trying to answer the questions with my teammates and race the others to bring the answers to my teacher. My natural leadership abilities are also demonstrated in my other classes