Life experiences can affect students' educational experiences as they continue through the middle years (grades 7-9). Children carry negative experiences, societal and family influences, and early educational experiences with them. All of these factors can contribute to student anxiety while learning mathematics. Anxiety in mathematics may present at any point throughout children's' education and can prevent students from having successful and positive experiences. Long-term effects could prevent a student from pursuing certain careers involving mathematics. By shifting the environment in which students learn, and the conversations around those experience, educators also have the potential to shift the mindset of students, creating a positive learning environment that lessens anxiety surrounding mathematics education and opens doors for further mathematical education after high school.