Teachers Can Change Lives

My favorite teacher is my English teacher. Why?

 

Because I spent all of last semester uncomfortable at a new school, scared and alone. I hated it there and spent a lot of time trying not to cry. I looked forward to going to his class. Counted down the hours until I could go to English. “Don’t cry, it’s only six more classes to English”, “I’ts okay, get through lunch and two more classes and we’ll be okay”, “one more class and everything will be okay”, “just ten more minutes, you can do this”

 

Last semester his class was literally the only thing I enjoyed about my day. He never made things awkward or uncomfortable, he always keeps the class happy and we laugh a lot. As a person who spent the past six years almost completely isolated from the world and with anxiety, this means a lot. To most kids it would just be “a fun class” to me it became the only place I wasn’t miserable.

 

This is why he started to become my favorite teacher, the fact that we have a lot in common and he shows interest in my future writing career, and acknowledges my anxiousness made me like his class even more. Every time there’s even a chance I might have been embarrassed or uncomfortable he’s apologized and  tried to reassure me. As someone who is awkward with really bad anxiety this means a lot.

 

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, no I don’t have a crush on my teacher but for the first time since I was ten I look up to someone. I’ve never had an English teacher care so much about how much I’m learning (not my grade but whether or not I’m taking anything away from his class), I’ve never had a teacher care about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’ve never had a teacher make me so comfortable in their class before.

 

I should also mention that it’s thanks to him that I have friends now. If he hadn’t rearranged the seating in his class for this semester I would still be friendless and spend a lot of time at school alone.

 

Teacher Appreciation Day was on May 3rd so this post is a bit late but to all of the teachers out there, should you be reading this, thank you. You never know how much you can change someones life by just doing what you do. Thanks to this teacher I know exactly what I want out of my life, he’s helped me to believe in myself and basically saved my senior year of high school. If you’re reading this Mr. M. thanks for everything.