When I was a teacher in DC, one of my very favorite students came up to me and she was really excited. “Mr. Hassan,” she said, “Ms. Eisele just gave me my reading assessment… I got to reading level Y! That means if I increase my reading level by one more letter, I will get to level Z! That’s the last level!” “That’s great!” I told her. “You must have worked really hard and read a lot of books at home.

+++ title = “02” date = 2018 +++ Spoilers ahead. First: The part where everyone is complimenting and congratulating the performers at the school play on the way out, and the drama teacher says quietly “They didn’t get it.” We later find out that he’s depressed. I just loved this part so much as an artist. The accolades you receive a lot of times are merely supportive. Supportive is not bad (and actually welcome!

+++ title = “02” date = 2018 +++ I was watching Gordon Ramsey on YouTube, and he said that one should never put anything into a pan that isn’t hot enough to sizzle. And ever since I’ve adopted this way of thinking, I’ve enjoyed cooking about 1000% more. The feeling that I get when the food drops from my hand into the pan and immediately starts to sweat and get aromatic is indescribable.

Every month, I watch a YouTube channel where a guy named Nick in an unidentified part of the world reads my tarot. And every month, I learn about what to expect in regard to my health, wealth, and happiness. He does this by pulling random cards out of a shuffled tarot deck and interpreting what they might mean. And actually, sometimes he doesn’t even pull the cards; instead, he’ll occasionally be clumsy while shuffling and a card will fall out and he’ll use that.

I had dinner with a friend tonight. Someone I respect that I once reached out to interview for a podcast, and then reconnected with randomly in my new job. We talked about a lot of things. But mostly we talked about our careers, and why we choose to work in education. Eventually, we moved into reasons why people choose the work that they do in general. I talked about my regrets, my struggles, my pride, and my failures as a teacher.