By Bella ’30
When I first started at Harvard-Westlake in 7th grade, the academics felt approachable. Seventh grade eased students into material well, classes were engaging but not overwhelming, and it was easy to believe that strong effort and organization was all I needed to succeed. I won’t lie, being at this school can be challenging but HW does a really incredible job at integrating new students slowly, so 7th grade was a slow on-ramp to getting used to the pace of HW.
By the time 8th grade started, the ease shifted a bit. The workload increased, expectations rose, and suddenly it felt like everyone knew what they were doing except me. HW is great at pushing students to challenge themselves, but in 8th grade, that challenge can hit hard. Classes moved faster, assignments stacked up, and “just trying harder” stopped being enough.
This became very obvious to me in math. Math had always been one of my stronger subjects, so when my grade started to drop, I was confused and stressed. I did what I thought I was supposed to do: more homework, more studying, more convincing myself I’d figure it out eventually. Spoiler alert: I didn’t. Instead, I just got more frustrated and spent a lot of time staring at math problems pretending they’d suddenly make sense if I looked at them long enough.
What actually helped was something I avoided at first: talking to my teacher. I didn’t want to admit I was struggling, especially when it felt like everyone else was keeping up just fine. But once I finally asked questions and went to extra help, things changed. My teacher broke things down in a way that actually made sense, and I realized I wasn’t “bad at math”, I just needed clarification. Slowly, my confidence came back, and my grade followed. And, I realized all my other classmates were getting help too! Learning to ask for help is a skill of its own, and HW helps us learn that skill.
My struggles in math taught me something important: hard work matters, but hard work alone isn’t always enough. At HW, there are, indeed, academic expectations, especially as you move up grades, and it’s easy to think you have to handle everything on your own. You don’t. Asking for help doesn’t mean you’re failing, it means you’re learning how to succeed. And sometimes, the smartest thing you can do is raise your hand (or send that email) and ask for help before your math homework starts judging you back.
