We’re nearing the halfway mark of the semester and for some, things may or may not be going well. For the latter I’m here to offer some advice I followed myself: seek help.

Not just any help, go see your teacher. Reach out to them and show them how serious you are.

For the first half of this semester, I’ve been struggling terribly with linguistics. I bet you’re wondering what linguistics is. I thought I saw what I was getting myself into, turns out I was sadly mistaken.

Overwhelmed and not a scintilla of confidence in the subject, I considered taking an “L” in this subject and I think my teacher knew that. She wasn’t going to allow me to give up so easily, though. She informed my coaches and academic coordinator of my poor progress and they forced me to come up with a sufficient plan on how I would turn things around.

It was on me. My grade, my responsibility.

I decided to speak with the teacher and see if she would be willing to sit down with me twice a week to go over the material and she was pleased to hear it, but first I would apologize for my initial lack of effort.

That’s all it takes.

Make the effort with your teachers before you give up; they’re here for a reason. As students, we have to make the initial effort to show that, although we struggle, we’re willing to turn it around. That alone will make a significant difference on changing the teacher’s perception of you.

Now that fall break is over, let’s try to make the effort and see what comes from it.