Some relationships in this job stretch far beyond the bell schedule. They're not neatly tucked into gradebooks or graduation years. They don’t end with a final exam or a diploma. Some relationships, like the one Kyla and I share, just keep circling back, evolving, deepening, surprising us both with where they land next.
In this episode of With Honors, I get to sit down once again with my many-times-over student Kyla. She was once a wide-eyed, ambitious honors 10th grader in my English class, quick-witted, thoughtful, a little unsure, but already burning with potential. Later, she became a senior in my AP Lit class, then my student assistant. Then she came back to visit during college. And came back again. And again. Eventually, she returned not just as a former student but as a peer when she was placed here as my student teacher. And now she’s launching into her own teaching career, guiding her own middle school students, who will undoubtedly return to her someday.
To close out Teacher Appreciation Week, Kyla sat down with me for a conversation that feels like the full-circle kind. We talk about what it meant to be her teacher, what it meant for her to come back as mine, what scared her and what made her proud, how she found her own voice, and what it means to move from being taught to becoming the teacher.
There’s laughter here, especially in the ending, when she tries her hand at impersonating me. There’s warmth and nervousness and reflection. There’s appreciation in both directions. Because this job, at its best, is never just about instruction. It’s about influence, and continuity, and the quiet power of showing up for each other across the years.
If you've ever been shaped by a teacher or had the honor of shaping someone else, you'll hear something familiar in this episode: the way teaching weaves us together, year after year, into something bigger than any single lesson plan.
You can find With Honors
on Spotify:
on Apple Podcasts
on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCweufFHJbylu4tR598SDj5w
Also, throw some love at our brotherly podcast with Coach Haston, A Deadman's Books. He's on Spotify at
and Apple Podcasts
This episode features inspiring piano music by BlackTrendMusic, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
