I thought I was never going to reach eighth grade, but finally the time had come.  I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.  I wasn’t sure what teacher I would be assigned and all I knew was how I did not want Mr. Levenhagen as my eighth grade teacher.
The only thing I really knew about Mr. Levenhagen was that he was a very intimidating looking teacher who had the yelling abilities to be heard halfway across world.  Yes, I was a victim of his of his yelling before, and it was not the most pleasant experience of my life.   So many of the eighth graders who had him before said how awesome of a teacher he was.  But all that shinagens was in one ear and out the other after my incident when he yelled at me for goofing around in the halls I could practically feel the vibrations hit my body from the sounds waves, he was so loud.  I was pretty set in stone of what kind of teacher this guy is.
Then it was that time of year when I figured out what teacher I got.  Of course.  Just my luck! Mr. Levenhagen.  I was I not excited for this school year.  All I could think about up until the first day of school was how badly Mr. Levenhagen is gonna be on me this year.
As I walked into his classroom, for the very first time, there was Mr. Levenhagen.  Except not the Mr. Levenhagen that I thought I knew so well.  This was a whole different side of this teacher that I’ve never seen before.  He had his arms crossed, big smile on his face, and jolly attitude, who was more excited to meet me than I was to him.  Man was I fooled for the past eight years.  It’s almost as if I had been dreaming.  After all this time that I thought he was this evil eighth grade teacher, he was one of the most kind hearted teachers I’ve got to know.
As the year rolled on, I noticed distinct characteristics about Mr. Levenhagen.   He wasn’t there just to go through the motions with all the students and then to go pick up his paycheck.   He actually wanted to see his students succeed in whatever they were doing.  Whether is was succeeding in asking a girl out or writing a final semester exam, the man just loved seeing kids do their best and achieve greatness.  He wasn’t the “NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS!!!” type of teacher I thought he was.  Heck if running in the halls was what you wanted to achieve, he would probably help you with it.
It’s teachers like Mr. Levenhagen that make learning not a job for the students but a hobby.  I never once dreaded going to school simply because Mr. Levenhagen.  That’s a big deal if someone keeps you from dreading school, trust me.  It means there’s something special about this teacher. 
What I learned from this experience was never judge a book by its cover.  Eighth grade was hands down my favorite year of school I’ve had so far and none of it would have been possible without Mr. Levenhagen.