#teacher stuff

My writing practice day, take two! Today, I studied a ton for my semester exams — all about neuroscience and learning disabilities. I’m studying in English too, which feels pretty cool.

Oh, I’ve totally fallen in love with OneNote! It just makes everything so comfortable — taking notes, studying without needing to print out a mountain of essays… it’s a game-changer.

Also… I set my Goodreads challenge for 2025 — 50 books! Yeah! I’m so proud of myself for that.

Lately, I’ve been reading The Diary of a Young Girl in English and Requiem for a Dream in Persian. Such different worlds in one head, haha.

End of the fall semester means I’ve got a ton on my plate with my internship and the final report. Kinda overwhelmed, but hanging in there.

Anyway… don’t know what else to say! Guess that’s enough for today. Bye! Hehe.

“What I want?” I turn around, shaking again, but this time, it’s genuine anger I feel. “I want you to see me! Fucking see me! See beyond the use I have for you. I want you to see the person that’s me. ME.” I almost scream at him.

And now, the mask that is his face finally cracks. I see it crumble. For the first time since coming here, I see the real him.

And bloody hell, it’s not beauty I see. Not softness. Or empathy.

What I see is fear. The fear of someone too afraid to allow others to behold the ugly truth that is him. Something so hideous in his own eyes that he is willing to do anything to hide it.

And this should be the moment for me to go away. Because I have come to terms with the fact that this is not a game in which someone like him miraculously transforms into a version I secretly wish him to be. A version spurred on by the romanticized myth of true love. The power it upholds to transform beasts into people.

I should go away. Because if I don’t, I will make myself an accomplice to the unwillingness to accept the truth. I would embrace the victim I refuse to be.

“Thank you for your help,” I say with a neutral voice.

And then I turn around.

And this… this is the most truest and most hardest and most self-caring thing I’ve ever done.

Jennette McCurdy announces her novel ‘Half His Age’ releasing in January.

TEACHING IS A CREATIVE ART!

We spend a huge amount of our time thinking up creative lesson plans and activities, and then we have to present those in a way that is interesting enough to students to keep them engaged. And then the day is done and we gotta do it all over again the next day.