Today I hit a breaking point. I had been dealing with my anxiety and depression fairly well, but today I broke. I work as a high school teacher and was helping out with a senior ceremony. Listening to the speeches that were given, I realized I had heard the same ones only a few years before, and genuinely believed I could change the world as a teacher. But now, after grading state tests and seeing how little students care about my class, I feel like a failure. I feel like I don’t matter, I don’t make a difference, I don’t want to be a teacher. I have lost my passion for teaching after this pandemic, and for the very first time in a really, really long time, I have wanted to self harm. Rationally, I know all teachers are going through a rough patch, but it just doesn’t seem like my situation will ever get better. Students have already decided from the moment they walk in my door that they hate my subject, and therefore don’t care and don’t try. I have given this job everything, and I feel guilty for not wanting to do it anymore. I feel so low and so unbelievably sad.