Thank you, Señorita Peña!

I posted this on facebook, but wanted to add it on here.
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In 8th grade, even before high school ever started, I had a spanish teacher who was an angel to me. Her name was Ms. Peña, and it was her first year teaching at HMS. The class I had with her was Spanish 1-2.
I remember that first semester of her class was ridiculously easy. We learned the alphabet, colors, letters...all of which I already knew from the elementary school spanish courses my mother made me take. So I got an easy 94% first semester, which was fine. I expected 2nd semester to be just as easy. But then when second semester happened, I fell behind pretty quickly.
I started making some C's and D's 2nd semester of my eighth grade year, a time that was rough with adhd medication changes and other personal issues. And Ms. Peña noticed. She invited me in after school everyday for hours and helped me study. My grade dipped into the upper 50s and I worried. I worried because I was falling behind - my friends seemed to have no trouble and here I was, pretty much failing the class. I completely hated the spanish language.
Everyday, I spent three hours after school in Ms. Peña's room, painstakingly going over verb tenses and vocabulary words. She allowed me to cry, and then pushed me further. Her encouragement made me feel like maybe, just maybe, I could do this. Then, I started understanding how to conjugate verbs and remembering definitions. Spanish became easier to learn... and I started loving the language and culture again. And then my grades started climbing.
Because of Ms. Peña's endless patience and never ending love for her students, I became the student I am today. She taught me how to persevere, even when everything seemed completely hopeless. I just wanted to pass the class, yet Ms. Peña guided me to a 91%. I went on to completely dominate 3-4 and 5-6! :)
So even if she doesn't manage to see this, I just want to say a huge huge thank you to her. Ms. Peña is truly one of the most caring and dedicated teachers I know, and I'm so lucky to have been in her class during the year that she taught at HMS. <3 She's definitely helped me become the person I am today.

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I wanted to do a bit of a series, I suppose, of thank yous to those who have helped me become who I am today. This is the first one...I'm really not sure how many there will be.