(Continuation of “A Tale of Woe“)

Sitting in a seat at the back of the half empty room, the boy sat knowing he had worked hard all week. He had put everything he had into this paper. The spring break teacher was different from his “I hate my job” teacher. This gave him a sense of hope, she seemed happy in her position as an English teacher. He had written the paper, typed it out and turned it in with breathless anticipation. He had spent all his free time making sure his sentence structure was correct, that his paragraphs flowed and that his point was clear. The young man couldn’t stand the stress of not knowing the outcome! Not knowing if he’d passed or failed again was killing him! The teacher took a break and went out of the room. He waited until she was out of sight and hurried over to peek at the sheet of names she had on her desk. The teacher was crossing off the ones who failed and leaving the ones who passed. He scanned the list and found his name…. it had not been crossed off! Was this it? Had he finally passed this paper?! Was this real? Maybe he understood wrong, maybe it was the names crossed off that passed and others failed… He went back to his seat wondering, still confused as frustration ate at his nerves!

After the class was finished, he walked slowly up to the teacher, “Ummm… I was just wondering if I passed it?” He said shyly. The teacher pulled the list out of her bag and said, “Well, let me see… Yep, you passed. Good Job!” Shoved the paper back into her bad and walked out of the classroom leaving the young man standing alone. The idea of passing this paper had only been a dream and now - now it was a reality! He had done it; all the hard work had finally paid off and he was free from the weight of passing this English paper!

He looked around and found no one to rejoice with him, but that was okay because this was a personal battle that he conquered by himself. A smile formed upon his face where tears of pain and annoyance once fell, and he felt something he hadn’t in a long time… pride.

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