I was nervous watching you pass back everyone’s tests with a snarl on your face. As you got closer to my to my desk I held my breath. You shook your head and slammed my test on my desk. An enormous red F was staring back up at me. An F?! I had never seen anything worse than a C in my entire 12 years on this earth. I panicked thinking of what my parents would say, but that was the least of my worries. You asked me and about 6 other students to stay after class as the rest of our peers scrambled to get out of there as fast as they could. You stared at us for the longest 30 seconds I had ever experienced before you started ranting about how easy this test was, and how it was obvious none of us had even bothered to study. Although it was evident we had all stayed up passed our 9:30 p.m. bed times studying our butts off, nobody objected. You eyed all of us up and slowly walked towards me and put your unpleasant finger on the gigantic red F. You spat the word “stupid” at me, and I felt my eyes starting to water. First, you mocked my sadness and then said “Good luck going anywhere in life if you can’t even pass my class, you won’t get a job anywhere. You can't do anything right, what a waste of time”. I was crushed and felt defeated as I silently listened to you tear my fellow peers apart. That wasn’t the last time I'd hear degrading words come out of your mouth directed at me. Many other times I struggled to keep up in your class and many other times I stayed after to be yelled at for not being smart enough or for wasting your time.

I passed your class, barely, but I survived. The demeaning and pessimistic words had done the opposite of your goal to humiliate me; it inspired me. I took those words and used it to motivate me through the rest of my years of middle school, high school and now college years. I made honor roll throughout high school and made it onto dean's list a few times in college. The biggest plot twist? I’m in college studying to become a teacher. I’ve even had a lot of people tell me I’m going to be an awesome teacher because of my big heart. So you were completely wrong, I am going somewhere in life and I’m going to have the same job as you except I’m going to make sure I’m nothing like you. I’m never going to put my students down, the words stupid, idiotic, and moron will never come from my mouth and I will set my students up for success NOT failure. I will never give up on them, I'll do my very best to stay positive and I'll always encourage them to do their very best. No matter the student I will NEVER make them feel like a waste of time or space.

To all the other students out there struggling with their own ruthless teacher or professor, you’ve got this. That teacher is ignorant and miserable and their only intentions are to bring people down to their level and you can’t let that happen. Stay above them, show respect even though they never have to you and show them that you CAN do it. The sweetest revenge to give to that teacher is your success. Surprisingly enough, you have learned something from this unloving teacher; this is the type of person you never want to be.

To all the future teachers out there like myself, never lose sight of why you want to be a teacher. There's going to be good days and there's going to be really bad days but there's always a tomorrow. Make a difference in your future students' lives and I promise that they'll make one in yours.