**Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. **

In an effort to entice my year five class into exploring the wonders of basic algebra and long division, my math teacher would often say, “Math is the language of the universe.” Such an appeal to the transcendent nature of math seemed a bit esoteric to me, and wholly too complex for the minds of a class of eleven-year-olds whose cognizance stretched as far as 20 minutes into the future to lunch time. Four years later, as I was about to enter the new accelerated math class, I found out that my old teacher was right—math truly was universal. It was a language for anyone. I had an idea of what accelerated math would look like before it started: covering the coursework at a far quicker pace and completing the highest level of math one year early. As ...