So what was it like working at NorthLight, I hear you ask.

You know the cardinal rule of teaching: never initiate a power struggle with students. No one wins.

I found myself flouting this golden rule then. Specifically, I had shouting matches with a kid who was rude and defiant. Teaching had transformed me from an easy-going and agreeable individual to someone who possessed an iron will. I just felt that an adult needed to put him in his place.

Being the adult, I did my due diligence and initiated a closure with him at the Reflection Center before the school day ended.

Those two years were a pressure cooker, stress-testing our relationship.

In upper secondary, he had a different teacher. And following that, I left NorthLight too, setting in place the conditions that would relegate my spicy shouting matches to a remnant of the past.

Then came an unexpected message from him yesterday. He wanted to let me know that he had received the Edusave Good Progress Award — probably the first award he has ever garnered in his educational career. It seasoned my morale delightfully on the first day of the school year, for someone thought me memorable enough to designate me as his cheerleader.