Practice What I Preach
I am a lover of words and language. I believe with my whole heart the power words have to heal and to connect. I have prayed about this, wept about this, and tried to make peace with this. I have brave students, who have written powerfully, who have used their words to help heal and connect through their true pain. I have been a coward. September is National Suicide Prevention Month. I’m still afraid. I don’t want to be a person who preaches but doesn’t practice. So, I am writing. I am writing as real and as true as I can. There will be grammatical errors and there will be things I leave out that will be important, but I know I need to write and I need to tell my story because I want the world to be a place where no one else is afraid. I am a teacher. I am just a regular teacher who loves her kids. I have the privilege of teaching Language and Composition. I am unafraid, in my classroom, to approach difficult subje...