My Promise to This Year’s Teachers

Michaela Mitchell Elementary School

But there are things I'll be thinking, things I wish I was brave enough to say out loud, to help them understand the package deal of their new student and said student's mother.

Engulfed

Kathrena Rivera Elementary School

I’m at that place: my youngest does not need me quite as much as he used to. Of course all my children “need” me, but not in that visceral and primal way anymore. 

The One Thing I Promised

Alyssa Pera Elementary School

“I don’t want to go,” she says, barely above a whisper. “What if I come in last?” I feel the pit forming in my stomach, the same one I know she feels.