I have only worked at one charter school before I transitioned to a non-educational job. I was 21-22F during my teaching years. One thing I often notice is we often talk about how the children’s behavior and leadership stresses us out. But we barely talk about how sometimes a teacher takes every chance to dig at another.

As educators, we are encouraged to be open minded and create a comfortable space for students to be themselves. But why can’t we be open minded when it comes to teachers and their diverse cultures?

As I am brown, in our culture, most of us live with our parents until we are married. This is also a personal preference, and what makes it easier is that I don’t come from a toxic family. But this whole factor was frowned upon at the school I worked at as I was seen as the “spoilt woman-child who was still living with her parents.” I wish people knew that when we live with parents, it also comes with many responsibilities. As most of our parents are immigrants, they can’t support themselves financially and physically when they reach a certain age, and there’s always the issue with language barriers. We have to put everything aside when ever there’s a medical emergency.

When we live with our parents, we are still paying the rent, we are still paying the bills, we are still buying the groceries. We are not being irresponsible.

There’s many many reasons why I left the profession, but these are the uncommon factors no one talks about enough