I just paid for my People subscription and was sent an acknowledgment reply addressed to “Mr. Huff.” That bugged me. I know I have a unisex name, and it does happen occasionally, but that doesn’t mean it makes me happy.

I’m feeling down right now for lots of reaons. The kicker is that I actually had a great day. The core of the English department went over to one of our “feeder” schools and met with Language Arts teachers from that school. It was invigorating and productive. And I got to hear about what a good teacher I am from the parents of my students (several parents teach there). That’s always a great thing. I appreciated the compliments. Sometimes I feel like I’m not doing what I need to do, and it’s refreshing to see otherwise. I don’t know. What am I getting at? I just like to hear I’m doing a good job sometimes, and that was nice to hear. Actually, if I didn’t think I could do an important job like this, I probably shouldn’t be, right?

I guess it’s just nice to feel special — like you have an impact. Why don’t I enjoy that more? Try to hang on to it? Why do I have to figure out a way to balance that out by immediately figuring out a way to feel bad about myself? It’s very weird. I need to stop it.