This morning, I walked into my senior English class just as the bell was ringing. The girls were already there, some with their heads in their hands. The room felt heavy with the weight of something. At first, I couldn’t tell what it was and I just searched the faces of the teenage girls who already had their books open waiting for me to start talking. I started to teach but stopped and asked them if they were all okay.
Like a faucet turned on quickly, emotions gushed out like water all over the desks. “I was wait listed at five schools,” one student told me. “I got into a great school but I can’t figure out why I was turned down from my top choice,” said another. And then, “This is all so overwhelming. How do I know which step to take?”
I paused and at first, I simply said that I was sorry. I told them that this is hard now but I believed in them and everything would be fine in the end. I tried to convey, briefly, that life will take them where it should. And my plan was to move on to our novel. Continue Reading