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What could a 20-year-old do to potentially improve their quality of life?

Focus on personal development: Take the time to learn new skills and knowledge that can help you advance in your career and personal life. Consider taking classes or attending workshops, reading books, or learning a new language.

Develop healthy habits: Eating a balanced diet, getting regular exercise, and getting enough sleep are all essential for maintaining good physical and mental health. Make a plan to incorporate healthy habits into your daily routine.

Build a strong social network: Spending time with friends and family can help reduce stress and improve your overall well-being. Join clubs or groups that share your interests or volunteer for a cause you believe in.

Set goals and prioritize: Setting goals and working towards them can give you a sense of purpose and direction. Prioritize your goals and focus on achieving the most important ones first.

Manage your finances: Develop good money management habits early on. Make a budget, save money, and avoid accumulating debt.

Explore new experiences: Try new things and explore new experiences. Travel to new places, try new foods, and challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort zone.

Do grammar or middle school teachers or principals ever wonder what happened to former students?

Some of them. I primarily wonder about students who:

I taught my first two years as a teacher.

Had some pretty intense special needs.

Are the older siblings of students I still teach.

My first two years as a teacher, I was so excited to finally have my “forever career,” and I only had one child of my own at that point, and I was younger and more full of energy, that I felt like I really connected with my students. I also happened to teach at a very tight-knit, family-oriented Catholic school, and I got to know a lot of the students’ parents as well. Several of my alumni from that school have since friended me on social media. They’re all done with college now, some are married, and one of them is pregnant with her third child already. I never interact with them. They just friend requested me, and I accepted, and now I watch their lives unfold via their social media posts.

As my teaching years went on, and my own family grew, and my personal responsibilities grew too, and the time and energy I could dedicate to teaching waned, I’ve connected less and less with my students. That’s not a bad thing. I still do a great job in preparing them for high school. But it does lead to some awkward moments like what happened to me last Christmas, when I ran into an alumnus at Starbucks. I asked her what school she was at now (a standard question while I tried to remember her name), and she told me the name of a high school that is also the name of a university, and I asked her what she was majoring in. I thought she was talking about the university, because I could not remember her name or what I taught her. I only vaguely recalled teaching her at all. Then she reminded me that I’d just taught her two years earlier, so she couldn’t possibly be in college yet.

I’ve taught a handful of students whose special needs were so intense that they (the special needs) would have precluded the student from living independently. I think about those students from time to time, and what they’re up to these days.

And it’s easy to think about the older siblings of students I still teach, because I have the reminder of them in front of me each school day. Also, they sometimes come to school to pick up their younger siblings. It’s always fun to see one of my alumni, who was 14 when they graduated from my class, driving back to the school a few years later, to pick up their little sibling