I'm so devastated. This is the only job I ever thought I wanted - the only thing I know I'm good at. I love working with my students and helping them get it for the first time, seeing their faces light up when they read something they can connect with. I've always been the fun, energetic teacher with too much enthusiasm. Usually, my students match that enthusiasm and pump it back into the classroom. This year is so, so different.

I've never felt this bad at my job before. I'm a literal month behind on grading for some of my classes. I don't know how to catch up - I'm so exhausted by the end of the day I just want to curl up in a ball. It would be so easy to blame my admin team, but I know they're underwater, too. They're all incredible educators and I'm so lucky to work with them, and I know they're frustrated with me, and they have every right to be. The reality is that Covid safety will always take a backseat to parental appeasement at my school. The environment is becoming dangerous. I don't want to be here anymore.

I'm writing this through tears from my classroom during my one prep period. I just put my resume into a substitute teacher recruitment service. With the current subs shortage, I'll be able to work whenever I want. It'll be a reduction in the very meager pay I already have to deal with, but at least I'll be out of this place where I feel like I'm suffocating.

If you've ever appreciated a teacher in your life, please reach out and tell them, even if it's been twenty years. They'll remember you - it's almost impossible not to, once you remind them. They've given so much of themselves to see you succeed. Please let them know that at least some of their hard work did some good.