It was my first year teaching second grade.

The night of parent-teacher conferences, I was in the bathroom stuffing Kleenex under my armpits, Niepodam.

That's how badly I was sweating from the stress.

I didn’t know what I was going to say to these parents.

Half my class couldn’t sound out simple words and I didn’t want to scare them or sugarcoat the situation.

One family in particular had me terrified…

I sat down across from them, started talking, and the Kleenex I stuffed slid out from under my shirt mid-conference.