Not too many years ago the author started out to study the students' own perspectives on their experience with the intent to answer the question, "How do college remedial math students define success, and what are they striving for in their math classes?" The author did not quite manage to answer such a grand question, but did gain some very interesting insights into how students perceived their mathematics instruction. This article explains the results of the study with the intent to give teachers of introductory college mathematics insights into their students. In this article, the author tries to convey what some students in the class would call "their side of the story," because perspectives of mathematics students, particularly remedial students, is often overlooked or ignored. There is much to learn, both for the sake of "pure" learning and the sake of pragmatic applications (e.g. curriculum reform), from listening to their voices and hearing their stories.