Tim wrote: “I would like to know what the “analogy about cake” was that your English teacher gave you instead of what you were really asking.”
One of… my favorite classes was Senior AP English. We studied all the typical authors. I liked Mr. Clute’s class because he was an expressive teacher. I liked the subject matter: reading the plays in class, watching a video of an actor playing Hamlet when we did the Hamlet section.
I especially enjoyed reading the literature, hearing the lecture, and learning that the stories held hidden meanings that the author was trying to convey, and/or that the reader could tease out and hopefully learn something through story.
Mr. Clute knew me well enough to adequately grade me based on my work. I had one major private conversation with him. Our connection was close, but it remained strictly professional and educational. I was struggling with depression and loneliness. My brother was at college. I had few friends. No boyfriend.
I wanted to talk to somebody. I picked Mr. Clute.
Between classes one day, I presented my question: a question of how do you make more friends. What I really meant was ‘How do you get a boyfriend?’ with the underlying question of ‘How do I make deeper friendships?’ ‘How do I stop thinking about wanting to disappear or die?’
Mr. Clute said that life was like cake and that we needed to learn to like ourselves first and that having friends was the icing on the cake. That’s the general summary. It’s possible the conversation was much more profound.
I didn’t know how turn the conversation from icing to drowning.
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