With an infinity symbol tattooed on her wrist with the words “Here-Now,” an aura of positivity surrounds her. Keeping a positive mindset and optimistic outlook on life, math teacher Ms. Seema Chandarana travels through each day solely focusing on the present, never the past, never the future.

Chandarana has been a teacher for 19 years and hopes to offer a safe learning environment for all her students- an environment in which they learn the curriculum, but also learn more about their inner selves.

“School was always a safe place for me as a kid,” Chandarana expressed. “I wanted to make sure every student who needs a safe place could find one in my classroom.”

Junior and former student Angel Thomas recalls her experience in Chandarana’s class and believes the unique teaching style benefited her greatly.

“Ms. Chandarana’s teaching style is very refreshing,” she said. “In traditional math classes, the work is repetitive and not interesting. However, Ms. Chandarana makes you actually want to do the math. She weaves life lessons into her class every day alongside the math. Being in her class uplifts your mood and sets you on the path to success.”

For Chandarana, her life’s hardships pushed her to find the true meaning of life-love.

“For me personally, it was a path of hardship that prompted me to dig a little deeper into the nature of the true reality behind it,” she said. “With some investigation, using my own life as a laboratory to experiment with, I have come to discover in my own direct experience that no matter what things look like, at the base of all of them, it is pure benefit and love that generates everything.”

This discovery of the true source of life-love-was uncovered by Chandarana in response to her life’s hardships.

“It was only by being in a position of great discomfort that I was inspired to find the deeper meaning behind things,” Chandarana said.

Her positive and unpretentious reaction to the ups and downs of life is a lesson that can encourage everyone. Inspired by a former student, Chandarana began to chronicle both the adversity she faced in life and her reaction to it. After time spent narrating both the good and the bad in her life, Chandarana wrote a book: “Irrefutable: My Proof for the Law of Attraction”. Her book guides readers through her own journey and discovery to the meaning of life, urging readers to also create their own reality.

“I had a former student who’s a writer,” she said. “One day when he was back home, we were having coffee and he said, ‘You know, you’ve been telling these stories since I was in your class, and I think you should write a book.'”

Chandarana was reluctant. She’s a numbers person, not a writer, but she decided to give it a shot.

“‘I went home that night and tried to put together some thoughts about a story. His encouragement was so big,” Chandarana said. “I just kept going until I had written so many of them that then I had the thought that maybe this is a book.”

Chandarana encourages everyone to step out of their comfort zone and tell their own stories.

“Even though I identified myself as a ‘numbers’ person, I found out I could also be a ‘words’ gal, too,” Chandarana admitted. “I think anyone has the potential to write because everyone has a story, and that story, is of benefit to others- when we have the courage and the means to share it.”

Current student and junior Sophia Izquierdo believes that Chandarana’s positive energy and teaching has boosted her confidence in and out of the classroom.

“Her positive outlook impacts my learning experience a lot,” Izquierdo said. “She helps give me confidence in my math skills and helps me find the motivation to be better at math.”

Her humbling and uplifting outlook on life is an inspiration in itself, one she attributes to the influence of everything around her.

“I really am completely humbled by the human experience,” she said. “I’ve been blessed to have so many teachers show up- a teacher could look like a book I’ve found or an experience I’ve had- all of those are teachers; they’re not always necessarily people. I’ve been blessed with so many teachers that have continued to point me in the direction of who I really am and what this reality is about.”