“[My first mentor] really was such a role model for the way she interacted with kids, the way she delivered curriculum, and the way she interacted with me as a new teacher with such kindness. With her, I could do whatever I was curious about. People would ask me, ‘do you want to do a training?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know, I'm just so happy with who I’m with! This work is so beautiful.’ So it was a dream, working with her, learning from her, being supported by her, and learning about what these little people are capable of.”

“This job is not like eight to four, you know? This job is in your head 24 hours a day. You can say ‘oh, I’m not replying to emails after four or five’ or whatever you want, but they're still there. That's the hard part. And as a teacher, where do you draw the line? You know, I can’t say I'm working from home tomorrow so I can catch up on my emails. In general, teachers, I don't think they have much time off. Everybody thinks, ‘oh my gosh, you have so much vacation,’ but we're not paid during the summer. Most of the people I know will work to supplement their income.

So you need to understand that you're constantly in the work, you know? 24 hours, it's really hard to get out of there. You're leaving and you try not to think too much about a work but for me, it's hard to separate. Sometimes I wish to have a job where I leave and I leave. And especially when you have so many years of experience, you do feel occasionally like ‘oh, there's life out there too. There are other things I could do, or I would like to do.’ You have those moments.”

“I do wish that people who are policymakers would spend a day with the kids in my classroom. I think that would be mind opening, you know? I think they would be… I think they would be surprised, in a way, to see what little kids are capable of. I think they would be surprised at what would they hear from the kids. I think they would smile a lot.

I had a kid who was here during COVID and she was just two and a half, and she was telling me, ‘I need to sue the government.’ I said, ‘So why do we need that?’ ‘Because there's not enough garbage trucks in Cambridge. Did you see how there's trash everywhere?’ And I'm thinking: This is a two year old who already has this idea. And because they’re not my own kids, I can have that distance and really see them more fully, for their personalities. They are so capable. So let everyone go to the classrooms, small, big. Let’s have talks between teenagers and two year olds, everyone.”