Skip to main content

A Letter to Mrs. Joshi

Dear Mrs. Joshi,

My name is Mudita Yajnik, you had me as your student in fourth grade. I am writing to you today to say thank you for being such a great teacher, and for helping deal with bullies. You were the first teacher ever who made me feel welcome in their class, and I could tell that you really did care about me. While I was in your class, I was dealing with a lot of bullies and the teachers ignored my cries for help. You, however, did not ignore me and let me vent when I wanted and provided a creative outlet for me to express myself. Even though it was an English language class, you had us drawing and playing games and spending time outside in the sun, and that made your class really fun and memorable. I remember we used to sing a song you made up for us. We used to sing it together as a class, and I used to sing that song at home as well! You even offered to tutor me so I can earn better grades in my classes.

While I was in your class, I felt comfortable and happy. I felt like I could talk to you about what was bothering me, and I'm positive you would have helped me with any problem as much as you could have. In the Indian education, I don't really have a lot of happy memories about my teachers because they all picked on me. I never did their work, which made them embarrass me in front of the class, which made me hate them even more and I never did their work because of this reason. But I remember doing all the homework you assigned because you were a really great teacher and I wanted to impress you. You were my first favorite teacher. Thank you for helping me, and other struggling students.

Best wishes,

Mudita Yajnik

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sourdough Bread Journey

 I've always been interested in baking bread and I recently took on the endeavour of baking sourdough. Immediately, I started to hear how difficult sourdough bread is to bake due to the the time consuming aspect of baking the bread properly. Even before this journey, I knew that bread-bakers always attributed sourdough to a very difficult bread. So, I started this journey with my guard up, expecting to make many mistakes that would result in uneatable bread.  Guess what. They lied.  I'm not saying it was incredibly easy, there are plenty of lessons I've learned through my mistakes. But those mistakes do not mark a difficulty for me, they mark my accomplishments. I've made mistakes I never thought I could make through my journey of baking sourdough, but they taught me valuable lessons and I don't regret a single mistake I made.  I decided to dust off my blog after taking to a friend about sourdough, and all she had heard about it was that it was the most difficult th...

Three Touchstone Moments

I'm about twelve years old, and it's our third year living in America. We've moved for the third time since we came here, this time to a small town in Maryland. We didn't have a place to stay, so we had to sleep in our family friend's basement. My parents were discussing money, and my sister and I were watching. In hushed voices, they talked about how worried they were: "We only have $500 left!" "I know, but we can figure this out." It was in that moment that I realized that when I grow up, I don't want to be in situations like this. One door that leads to a better life for me and my family was education. In that moment, I remember thinking that I will study hard and do my best in school so that I can get into a good college and start a great career. I started improving my writing skills so that I could keep up with the rest of the students in my class. But I wanted to do this for my parents--I still do. They have sacrificed so much for me, i...

Book Review: Convenience Store Woman

Keiko sees herself as an essential part of her community; someone who makes sure everyone has what they need whenever they need it, and someone who keeps everything organized for their convenience. Her work is very important to her, she is very dedicated to her job to the point where it's her central focus in life. Work has been the only thing in her life that's made sense, it gives her purpose and she feels safe in that. Keiko is a convenience store woman. Obviously, her family and friends find it very concerning that she's happy working at a convenience store for seventeen years, and that she's never had a partner, which makes her an "other" in their eyes. The thing is, Keiko knows how she is perceived and she doesn't care. She continues happily working at the store until Shiraha, a new hire at the store, moves into her apartment. "Convenience Store Woman" explores the idea of relationships viewed by society, and how society can make you feel f...