Graduating high school can be a very scary thing. But graduating high school with teachers telling me that I won't get very far in life, is worse than scary. Teachers were supposed to prepare me for the "real world," but some of them instead just made me feel extremely unprepared and inadequate.

Being two months into my first year of college, I personally feel like I've accomplished a lot. I've made a lot of friends and joined the debate team here at school. On top of that, my professors here have nothing but the utmost respect for me. From my 9th grade year to now, I've knowingly said some pretty problematic things in educational spaces, but teachers were supposed to help me understand what was going on- not tell me I'm just a "stupid kid who will figure it out one day."

There have been horror stories in the media about teachers calling 9-year-olds "pests, idiots, clowns, and buffoons." There have been countless articles posted from sites like WebMD and TeachingTolerance on teachers being the bully in a school setting. Teacher's who have put me down, and many others, are the reasons that parents talk to principals and pull children from schools. You're the reason I was so anxious filling out college applications early senior year. You're the reason I was so scared to go to office hours the first few weeks of this year when I really needed help writing my first essay in my English 105 class. You're the reason I cried come graduation day because I was so scared to go to college because I felt like such a failure in high school.

You all are supposed to stand with me, not against me. As a student, I know my teachers are not meant to hold my hand and play parent at the school, but you also are not supposed to be an anchor dragging me down. My ideas and words may not have been what you liked, but, hey, at least they were my own. Some of my peers never spoke in class for fear of being bullied into believing in something else. Some of my peers are not where they want to be in life currently because teachers gave them a grade less that was far less than what they deserved (simply because of difference in beliefs).

I hope one day, people realize that teachers are meant to teach and criticize my grammar in my English papers, NOT to tell me that my beliefs and experiences are "really weird" and that I should "probably not openly admit to that because that's not something we talk about, ever." I hope one day my former teachers see me successfully living my life and regret telling me I need to "stop being such a girl" when writing about issues plaguing teenage girls in an educational setting.

Yet, I am thankful for those teachers who treated me with less than a kind heart. In the words of Christina Aguilera: "It makes me that much smarter." To all of those teachers who challenged me: thanks for making me a fighter.