The scene is New York City, 2012. It’s June, which means the unbearable summer heat has just started to cling to the city, even in the early hours of the morning. Commuters bustle to their subway stations, and socialites step into cars parked outside of their Brownstones.

NYU Students rush off to class, carrying bags — not backpacks — and street performers are staking out their spots for the rest of the day near Washington Square Park.

I’m also in a rush — to interview for my dream job.

I had read one of New York’s most popular publications since I knew how to decipher text. …

Considering everything that teachers and parents are facing this year — can you blame them for getting creative when it comes to schooling options for their kids?

Public education systems have begun to quake under the effort of keeping parents, teachers, students, and their communities — happy.

One week ago, I was approached by a woman named Rebecca through Facebook messenger:

Matchmaking.

It’s not a new concept — in fact, it’s a centuries-old custom used around the world to help people find love — and in many cases, to create lasting and meaningful alliances between families.

A matchmaker who has data on eligible singles looks for patterns, personality traits to compliment one another, and uses it to pair them up to see if it would be a good match.

By Western standards, many have adopted this idea digitally in recent years — on dating apps, and matchmaking websites:

Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Shaadi.com, …

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

I’ve seen a few other writers put their best articles into one for easy access — and I love looking through to find pieces I wouldn’t have seen otherwise unless I endlessly scrolled on their profiles.

I could do that — but I love the categorization!

I also love adding to the different tags I’ve written for, and trying to catch ’em all like this is 2004, and Pokemon is all the rage. Is it still all the rage? I truly hope so.

I think it’s easy as writers to put ourselves down if we’re only making pennies off of…

Teacher: A person who passes information or skill.

We became teachers because we had one that completely changed our lives.

We became teachers because we wanted to be better than the ones we had who changed our lives — but in the worst way.

We became teachers because we love learning so much that we want to pass it on to future generations.

We became teachers because although we could do anything — this is what we were drawn to.

Before I became a teacher, I knew the risks.

I grew up in Colorado — and I was a student about an hour away when Columbine happened.

I remember life changing then — in 1999. For many…

My Fellow Educators, Parents, Students, and Community Members:

As we face the 2020–2021 school year head-on during a global pandemic, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.

A day may come when we break.

That day has come again and again, as we have allowed ourselves to become marginalized and told that education cuts are necessary — and we will persevere regardless.

It is not this day.

A day when we are exhausted, tired of fighting, and we can’t push on any further.

But it is not this day.

This day, we fight for what we should have pursued all…

IT HAPPENED TO ME:

For some writers, thousands — or hundreds of thousands — of views are their daily norm. For me, prior to writing this “viral” article, I had 741 views on my “best” article — written back in May.

It has great view time, which I think matters more than views in most cases — since that’s how we’re paid here.

However, I just wasn’t seeing the massive views other writers have talked about.

That was… until I wrote an article comparing teaching this fall to the sinking of the Titanic.

Here’s what happened, the analytics themselves, and how it went viral…

“Ms. Snow? Can I talk to you? I don’t feel so good…”

I’m already picturing the conversation with my students:

• They don’t feel well
• In fact, they think they might have a fever
• Their head hurts
• They are exhausted
• They have a tightness in their chest, but they don’t want to cough to draw attention to themselves
• They just want to put their head down and sleep from fatigue and the weight of the world — they want to be at school, but they also don’t
• They want life to be normal — but it’s not

They may or may not be wearing a mask:

So far, we as teachers have heard mixed messages. Our governor, just…