Originally posted this in the AoPS Community – High School Math Forum
In elementary school, from like first grade to 3rd grade, I was pretty sure I wanted to be an astronaut. I could recite the eight planets of the solar system in class while people were like, “What???”. But when second and third grade rolled around, I discovered that being in microgravity was a great risk to yourself, so I gave up on the astronaut idea and inspired myself to be a NASA physicist (which I still want to be to this very day).
Speaking of the sciences, I wanted to be good at math to pursue my future career. However, I seriously doubted that when I knew I was falling behind with subtraction in second grade. Doing subtraction algorithms all day long seemed to take a toll on my math skills.
Third grade rolled on with little difficulty and when fourth grade came, my mom gave me this book called “Challenge Math for the Elementary and Middle School Student”. This book contained many problems like the AoPS Beast Academy (which I didn’t even know at the time), and each section contained three levels: Level 1, Level 2 and Einstein.
At first, I felt so frustrated that I could only solve Level 1 and like only two Level 2 problems, but when my mom talks to me about the problem-solving strategies I could use, I became an expert at problem-solving and I could even solve most of the Einstein problems! 😄
As I came into middle school, I had no idea what Mathcounts, the AMCs or the AIMEs where. Beginning sixth grade, I was also really doubting my math skills for the second time of my life because of this simple problem:
Five people met at a party and exchanged handshakes such that no pair exchanged handshakes twice. How many handshakes were there?
The answer to this problem is trivial: 
After a while, my 6th-grade math teacher suggested I should buy the Art of Problem Solving Textbooks. On the Christmas of 2017, I received my first AoPS Book: the old fashioned Volume 1! 😉
This enhanced my math skills even more, and eventually, I was solving quadratics in 6th grade. I still have to thank my 6th math teacher for giving me those Algebra I worksheets I had used during class.
Seventh grade came around and I received two more AoPS Books for Christmas 2018: Intermediate Algebra and Introduction to Geometry. Using these three textbooks, I loved how these books had quick problem-solving techniques that actually made sense to me, instead of the old common core “memorize these formulas and that’s it, no proof required at all!” By the end of seventh grade, I had even derived Heron’s Formula, the Pythagorean Theorem, the quadratic formula, and many geometry/algebra proofs! My seventh-grade math teacher even let me do Alcumus in class!!! In the spring of 2019, I had also received Intro. to C/P and Precalculus(from a close friend).
At the end of 2019, I had moved to Taiwan. I started homeschooling and still is homeschooling right now. But I thank the AoPS Staff for making these awesome textbooks and providing the online community/Alcumus!
I am currently preparing for the AMC 10/12, hoping to make AIME and possibly the USA(J)MO!
Special thanks to:
-My mom, who taught me so much over these years. Thank you so much Mom!
-My dad, who also taught me a lot of stuff, even some basic Calculus! Thank you so much, Dad!
-The AoPS staff: without you guys, there would be none of us here, no textbooks and no Alcumus. I thank you guys for writing these awesome textbooks for those of us who are eager to pursue our STEM career. Thank you guys for making this world a better math place!
-To all of you here: Thank you for reading my post, and make this world a better math place! 😜
I look forward to seeing you all in the AoPS Community! Feel free to comment below for feedback, and ask me any questions you have! 😃