Yes, as nerdy as it sounds, you did read that last part correctly. I have always been a proud bookworm, starting with my kindergarten obsession over picture books like Patricia Polacco's autobiographical story Thank You, Mr. Falker and Sam Swope's fictional fantasy The Araboolies of Liberty Street. As much as I enjoyed looking at the intricate and colorful drawings that accompanied the words, what really made me to fall in love with reading those books were the ideas they showed me. For the first time in my life, I understood what it meant to embrace your differences, instead of feeling ashamed or frustrated by them. For little Trisha in Thank You, Mr. Falker, that meant spending time with her teacher after school to practice reading instead of silently struggling with dyslexia and bullying. For the residents of Liberty Street in The Araboolies, that meant learning to accept the exuberant, multi-colored new neighbors in their otherwise-monotone neighborhood. 

Growing up, I often felt out of place among my classmates and struggled to build friendships with them. I was an energetic, talkative kid who daydreamed constantly and often misunderstood social cues. I was a "tomboy," but too "boyish" to play with the girls and too "girly" to play with the boys. I also struggled with undiagnosed anxiety, depression, and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), an unfortunately under-diagnosed learning divergency that many people are born with. Stories became a safe space for me, little sanctuaries where I could feel free to think and act like myself while simultaneously exploring worlds completely different from my own. I became solely focused on learning how to read and spent as much time as I could with my nose in a book, even if it meant that my teacher had to tell me five times to put my book down when reading time was over, or my mom had to physically take my book away from me so that I would listen to what she was saying. The older I got, the worse my narrow focus became— in third grade, I frequently had to work well past dinner on my homework because I couldn't stop myself from reading Mary Pope Osbourne's Magic Tree House books all afternoon. Then, of course, came the numerous life-consuming Young Adult book series of my generation, series like Harry Potter, The 39 Clues, The Hunger Games, and my personal kryptonite, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a five-book adventure series written by former middle school English teacher Rick Riordan and follows the story of Percy Jackson, a teenage troublemaker from present-day Manhatten who discovers that he is the son of the Ancient Greek sea god Poseidon and the demigod hero destined to save the world from the Greek gods' vengeful predecessors, the titans. Riordan first created these "modern Greek myths" as a bedtime stories for his young son, who, like Percy, struggled in school due to ADHD and dyslexia. As you may know, Percy Jackson has now become a global phenomenon, with Rick Riordan writing multiple best-selling book series that cover four different world mythologies, adapting the original series into a Disney Plus show and the first book into a Broadway musical, and creating a publishing label for writers of all backgrounds to share stories involving their own culture's mythologies. In other words, the Percy Jackson series became the calling card for students like me who struggled to feel understood and accepted because of factors like learning disabilities, personality types, cultural backgrounds, and familial circumstances. Percy Jackson was the series that solidified my decision to become a writer, but it's also the series that made me earn detentions in middle school for secretly reading during math class. Math, in my mind, was no longer important for me to learn. 

As a reading tutor now, I often wonder how my all-consuming relationship with reading, and the way it detracted from my ability to focus on other subjects, might have changed if I had worked with a tutor in grade school. I knew that many students my age worked with tutors and my parents often pushed me to work with one, and yet I stubbornly refused to seek help with my math studies because I thought I was "already smart enough," and I always managed to get good grades anyways. But I learned the hard way that no one, no matter how naturally smart or motivated of a student they may be, is above needing help. My lack of attention and care towards improving my math skills finally caught up with me in high school, causing me to spend way too many hours finishing my math homework and frequently make simple arithmetic mistakes on tests involving much more complex content. I ended up graduating with a B+ in Pre-Calculus, a class that many students at my school took as juniors. What's more, I had to spend twice as much time as many of my classmates, including my twin sister, studying for the math sections of the ACT, and then later the SAT. My struggles with math in high school made me feel embarrassed and inadequate, the same feelings I had felt back in elementary school when I struggled to make friends and the same feelings that my childhood hero Percy Jackson felt when he struggled to do well in school. Worst of all, I was terrified that my lower grades in math were going to ruin my chances of getting into a good college.

Preparing for ACT and SAT exams pushed me to seek out a tutor for the first time, and it didn't take long for me to see what I had been missing out on. Along with improving my test scores, my SAT/ACT tutor showed me techniques that increased my problem-solving rate, reinforced my understanding of the math areas I had always struggled in, and, most importantly, helped me regain confidence in myself as an overall student. I ended up super-scoring to a 1380 on the SAT, which was good enough to make me an acceptable candidate for most of my top college choices. Finally investing in a math tutor showed me that I didn't need to be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help, and that working with a tutor didn't make me "dumb" or "bad at math." I just needed someone to help me find strategies and ways of studying that worked for my brain, especially since, as I know now, my lack of interest and focus in math was compounded by my undiagnosed ADHD.  

I also needed a tutor to show me the bigger picture behind studying a subject, like math, that I had little interest in. Every subject we study in school influences the way we think as adults, which is a perspective that most grade school kids— including me— don't really grasp until after the fact. When a student studies reading, for example, they are strengthening their ability to build persuasive arguments and understand different perspectives as much as they are learning how to spell new words and identify narrative themes. When a student studies math, they are strengthening their overall ability to problem-solve and follow logical patterns as much as they are learning how to create bar graphs and solve for x. As a filmmaker, some my regular tasks include mapping out schedules, problem-solving on set, and organizing expense reports, so ironically, if I hadn't finally taken the time to improve my math skills with my SAT tutor, I probably would be a lot less capable of handling my assignments on the job. 

I still believe myself to be an avid, knowledgable, and passionate reader. I also believe that I wouldn't be the reading tutor I am today if I hadn't struggled to improve my math skills and then experienced the benefits of working with an effective tutor. As a reading tutor, I aim to help each one of my students understand the importance of studying reading and reading comprehension, in tandem with working to improve their skills as readers. A major element of that tutoring strategy is showing students how reading can impact their current interests as much as it impacts their future goals. If a third grade athlete is really interested in playing basketball, then improving their skills as a reader could allow them to, say, read a memoir about Michael Jordan, or on a neurological level, it could exercise their ability to find patterns in an opposing teams' plays the same way they might find narrative patterns in a short story. If a sophomore is really interested in studying biology, then practicing reading comprehension skills could be critical to their ability to decipher complex ideas in their textbooks. Even if a student's goal is just to be a better reader or pass a class, improving their reading skills early on can save them a lot of trouble down the road— a lesson I had to learn the hard way, with math. 

There are so many kids out there who, like Percy Jackson, often feel inadequate and frustrated by their inability to do well in school. There are also a lot of kids who, like me, don't understand the importance of learning the "boring" or "irrelevant" subjects in the moment, so they don't even bother trying to improve. That is why mindset is, in my opinion, the key to academic improvement. As a reading tutor, I will take the time to get to know my students, learn about their interests, goals, learning habits, and background, and then build personalized lesson plans based on those factors that both challenge and encourage each of them. I will always treat each student's reading skill level with patience and respect, the same way that my SAT math tutor did with me. I will strive to create a safe space for students as they learn to read, the same way that books were a safe space for me. I will always prioritize quality over quantity in each session, so that students never feel overwhelmed or stretched thin in their learning process. Reading is a life-long skill, so it's important to me that when I work with a student to improve their reading abilities, those improvements last beyond their next test or current grade level. 

I am thrilled and honored to serve my community in Queens, and communities around the country, as a reading tutor for preschool, grade school, and college students. I believe so strongly in the power and magic of reading, the ideas that we can learn and the people (or demigods!) that we can become through words. I look forward to helping each student work towards their reading goals and reevaluate the role that reading can play in their lives.