Our high school offers several extensive courses from Choir and Personal Finance to Statistics and College English. Some may be more difficult, while others could be a breeze. But as a general statement, at least for me, high school, or even my general education as a whole, has so far been rather easy. Well, that is, all except for one class: Physics.

So, many of my classes have yet to challenge me. I would sit in class, sort of listen to the lecture while more often than not, doze off into a haze. I would go home, work on a worksheet assignment, and not even have to study for my tests. Of course, don’t get me wrong, there have been some difficult classes in there, but the difference between these difficult classes and Physics class was the amount of knowledge I actually gained.

Physics was a struggle. I skipped the prerequisite class, Chemistry, to take Physics my Junior year of high school. This caused for me to not understand much of the lingo throughout the class, I had a lot of catching up to do, and not only this, I had a lot of staying caught up to do. The first quarter? No, the entirety of that school year, taking the class was mostly spent self studying to catch up, watching numerous Khan Academy videos, and staying after school to work on problems and ask questions (sometimes I even got the privilege of changing the answers in the back of the book), but through this entire process Mr. Foster was very patient with me, and any other student that was struggling. He cared about our education and made sure that his students truly understood the material covered in the class.

Unlike other advanced or difficult classes, I retained so much knowledge in Physics and frankly, it was, and is, by far my favorite class offered at Fair Grove High School. Physics taught me how to work hard, study, and actually put in effort to get the education that I want from school. If anything prepared me for furthering my education at college, I give all of my gratitude to taking that class, because Physics? It’s honestly the only class I can confidently say I learned something in. I wish I could have taken more classes like it.

Editor’s Note: Jane Elliston is a Senior at Fair Grove High School, she writes about her life and the challenges she faces.