“I’ll never forget the words he said. ‘Knowing what his brain looks like, I can’t believe he is talking like this.’ I went to my car and cried. I cried tears of joy and tears of relief. And if I’m being honest, a few tears of fear. By early May, it was confirmed.”
‘When he turned a year old, he couldn’t sit up. He didn’t play with toys. He was essentially a newborn. He kept his left hand clenched, and his entire left side was tight.’
‘I heard you tell your kids you already ‘can’t wait until school starts’ because they’re driving you insane. Your face and tone were NOT joking.’
“To the annoyed mom at the store, I wasn’t eavesdropping. It can be so frustrating. I get it. But, I WISH I was doing that.”
‘There’s one season that really brings out my working mom guilt. Hint, hint, it’s the same as swimsuit season.’
“The teachers are counting down, the students are hyping up, the pools are about to open, and everyone’s ready for some good summer fun! Everyone except those of us who don’t get a break. The faint tune of the ice cream truck on a Tuesday afternoon is all the gut-punch it takes to make my eyes swell with tears.”
‘School is hard for my daughter who has never made less than an ‘A.’ She practices and prints off extra homework. The thought of failure invokes panic in her busy little mind.’
“I have one child who has brought home a handful of awards year after year, and another who faithfully collects his lone participation certificate. His best will never look like scholar of the year. But success looks different on every child.”
‘I lost one of my kids. As the crowd dispersed, two of my boys walked over to me, but my son was nowhere to be seen. I called his name, paralyzed in fear.’
“I hadn’t laid eyes on him for at least 10 minutes — or had it been 20? Immediately, everything around me swirled and blurred. The only thing in focus was the red flag flapping violently above the lifeguard station. The white-capped waves were deafening. Horrible scenarios flooded my mind.”
‘All I could think was, ‘Isn’t that what Dr. McDreamy does?’ My mom panicked. ‘Is this normal?’ He then asked if I frequently got migraines.’
“I was only 12, but got migraines a lot actually. It was to the point where people thought I was a hypochondriac. They would say, ‘she’s just a kid, why does she have migraines?”
‘What are ya’ll doing here?’ She had a peculiar look on her face. ‘We have something to tell you.’ ‘If you’re pregnant or dropping out of school, you might as well leave now! GET OUT!’
“I heard the words ‘Oh crap!’ We shockingly stared at the pregnancy test. ‘What do I do?!,’ I asked. ‘You have to tell your mom.’ My mom was a ‘no nonsense’ woman. Everyone knew she was NOT to be played with. I had to tell her in public. We showed up, unannounced, at her job.”
‘Miss, I have your father’s autopsy results,’ the coroner said. ‘He felt absolutely nothing.’ I quickly asked, ‘It wasn’t an overdose?!’ ‘No drugs were detected, ma’am.’ I cried hysterically.’
“‘We can’t reach him,’ he said. My grandpa was at my dad’s apartment trying to get in. Police arrived. ‘Do we have permission to break in?’ The officer kicked the door down. ‘Dad!,’ my sister screamed. A police officer held our grandpa back. ‘Dana wake him up, get him up!’ All she could say was, ‘Grandpa, I am so sorry.'”
‘I’m sick of getting dinged for test scores when my students don’t have food at home, or clothes that fit. I’m so sick of it, that I’m leaving the field.’
“Teaching was tenable when I was a 22-year-old single renter. It no longer works when I have a family and a mortgage. I’m not looking to have a crazy affluent lifestyle over here. But the fact is, I can only afford to live in the neighborhood where I teach because I’m married.”
‘It’s May, the month where it all goes down the tubes. I’m here to give you permission to tell all the CRAP to take an actual hike. Hand them lunch money. There is food, and that’s enough.’
“You will mess up. You will forget it’s Dress Like a Lumberjack Day or you will forget your cherub needs a cold drink to enjoy during the ‘special movie reward.’ You are allowed to feel bad for 10 seconds. Then I require you to move on. Your kid is fine.”
