{"id":141559,"date":"2019-12-26T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=141559"},"modified":"2019-12-16T14:06:47","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T19:06:47","slug":"one-word-salty-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/26\/one-word-salty-2\/","title":{"rendered":"One Word: Salty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We\u2019re away until January 6, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2019. Enjoy your holiday!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/salt_shaker_on_white_background.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-132351\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/salt_shaker_on_white_background-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/salt_shaker_on_white_background-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/salt_shaker_on_white_background-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/salt_shaker_on_white_background-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One kid raises their hand.<\/p>\n<p>They ask, \u201cMiss Gurba, why\u2019d you become a high school teacher?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is a classic time-killing move.<\/p>\n<p>My tone turns serious. I respond, \u201cIt was an accident.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hearing a public school employee be so blunt widens kids\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve baited me into a tacit game of truth or dare and I\u2019ve knowingly broken the rules. I\u2019m pretty sure they expect me to belt out the opening lyrics of \u201cGreatest Love of All.\u201d They want a saint.<\/p>\n<p>What garbage. Catholics raised me, but I\u2019m not a martyr. Still, even teenagers know you\u2019re not supposed to admit that you stumbled into their classroom, but who cares? I did and I stayed and I continue to stumble in every morning.<\/p>\n<p>Something my students ask me less often is whether or not I like teaching.<\/p>\n<p>Something they ask me even less often than that is what I like about my profession.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/02\/one-word-salty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A word with fifteenth-century origins, salty has slowly but surely made it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1300,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60329],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2019"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - 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