It is the first day of class with a horrible poetry teacher.
She knew kids hated poetry, so she hated all of us right off the bat.
She tells us that fifty percent of the grade would be to recite a memorized poem. I raise my hand and ask if I can do it right then.
She was completely shocked, and loved me for the rest of the year.
(I’ve always had photosensitive epilepsy — meaning, under certain light conditions, I’ll have a seizure. This is in the early 2000s, where computer screens were a little primitive, and I am not allowed to use the screens at school. We have a substitute teacher, and she takes us to the lab.)
Substitute: “[My Name]! Why aren’t you getting onto a computer?”
Me: “I can’t, or else I’ll have a seizure.”
Substitute: “Do you have a doctor’s note?”
Me: “No, but everyone knows and my mom talked to [Principal]—”
Substitute: “No note, no excuse. You’re just trying to get out of work!”
(We argue for a while, but I am afraid of getting in trouble so I hop onto a screen. Less than five minutes later, I black out, and I wake up in the principal’s a couple of hours later…)
Principal: “[My Name]! We had a meeting saying you didn’t have to get on the screens. Why did you?”
Me: “[Substitute] told me to.”
(I didn’t really see much of that substitute after that! Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only teacher that didn’t believe me, but this was the only teacher that didn’t confirm that I wasn’t lying before forcing me onto a screen.)
This story is part of our Epilepsy roundup.
Read the next Epilepsy roundup story!
Read the Epilepsy roundup!
(This takes place in my geography class. We’re looking at Great Britain.)
Teacher: “Now, who can tell me what countries are part of Great Britain?”
(A few people raise their hands, including me, and the first couple of people get the question wrong. Finally, she gets to me.)
Me: “England, Scotland, and… Ireland?”
Teacher: “Close. It’s actually Wales, not Ireland.”
Other Student: *points and starts laughing at me*
Teacher: *glares at the other student* “You shut up. You guessed Italy and Germany were in there.”
This story is part of our Scotland themed roundup!
Read the next Scotland themed roundup story!
Read the Scotland themed roundup!
Student #1: *sneezes*
Teacher: “Gesundheit!”
Student #2: “I didn’t sneeze at all today.”
Teacher: “You’re making progress. You’re not allergic to your teacher any longer.”
(I’ve already been having a bad day with ‘aunt flo’ coming to visit, so I’m ready to burst into tears at any moment. This is the day my math professor hands us back our test that we had taken at the end of last week. This is a test I thought I had done actually really well, but that is not the case; I get it back and it’s an ‘F.’)
Me: *trying my best not to burst into tears*
Professor: “Hey, [My Name], what’s wrong?”
(I show him my test and already I’m starting to cry.)
Professor: “Oh, right… You thought you did really well, right? Come on to my office. We’ll talk about this.”
(We go to his office, and I’m already crying my eyes out, barely able to talk but he goes over the stuff with me and we realize I just made simple mistakes and switched some stuff around. Otherwise, he says, it would have been a good grade.)
Professor: “Hey! There we go! It was all just some simple mistakes; here, let me mark them for you, and this way you can have this on the retake!”
Me: *barely able to get out a thank you*
(He let me stay there in his office and helped me to calm down, and offered to help me more on the tests. Thank you so much, sir. Math is NOT my best subject but you actually took the time to help me with it.)
