High School

I had a breakthrough in my decade-long teaching career just two years ago. Latent as that epiphany may be, I’m thankful it happened at all. I had tried to face my students with a stone face, not bending over the slightest challenges of my rules. I had tried to be buddy who sits on desks, creates inside jokes, and agrees to copious amounts of extra credit. While I remain close to so many students from those years despite my twenty-something attitude of knowing it all, the last two years have been the most transcendent. What did I do differently? I said one phrase to myself over and over again – “Be who you needed when you were younger.” Putting Advice...

Confession: It's summertime during a worldwide pandemic and I had no idea what to write for this blog post. It has been eating away at me this entire week. I cannot tell you how many times I stared at my blank screen, cursor judgmentally blinking away at me. "You've got nothing interesting to say, Heather. You go to work, wait tables, change diapers, keep up with your weekly chore chart, school's out and the kids go from video games to trampoline, to asking what's for dinner, to eating anything but ground beef (it's expensive right now!) for dinner, then it's off to bed at 9 pm, where maybe they'll go to sleep without asking for water, maybe you'll take a...

My son, who is entering the 12th grade, and I  spend a lot of time talking about his future. One thing that’s starting to frighten him is deciding what he wants to do with the rest of his life. I get it. That’s a huge decision for a seventeen-year-old. What do I want to do every day for the rest of my working life? Some days I still question my choices and I’m well over 17. As a parent, it’s my job to guide him in the right direction without pushing him. I know the paths I could see him taking, but whenever I mention those options he immediately dismisses them. I trust that if I’m right, then he’ll come...

I have seen a Facebook post circulating, asking “When did you first experience racism?” Due to #BlackoutTuesday I will be sharing my experience. Here is my story. Junior year prom. I had all the plans made and was ready — pictures at my parents' house with my date/high school boyfriend, then pictures before dinner with a large group of friends, dinner with that same group of friends, prom, after party, then stay at a friend's house with a large group. The night went perfectly until my mother received a call that I and my two black friends could not come over because there was no room for us to sleep. At the time, my mom made it seem like she just...

Dear High School Senior, There are probably a lot of emotions running through you right now. At some point in the not-too-distant-past, you felt a jolt of electricity when the announcement first hit – school was cancelled for two weeks. Although there were other important milestones that fell to the friendly fire, they were usually accompanied with terms like “postponed” and “rescheduled.” As the days mounted but before the Netflix shows became stale, those words morphed into one reverberating clanging – “cancelled.” The mourning began. There’s a prom dress that is still veiled in its plastic sheath. There are cleats in the closet that have barely pierced the grass. But there was one that you kept up home of adorning –...