From “I Can’t Do It” to “Let’s Try Again”
There are days when teaching English online feels less like a profession and more like a test of endurance. The internet suddenly disappears. A student doesn’t show up. The lesson you carefully prepared doesn’t go as planned. Your microphone stops working five minutes before class. A student struggles with something you thought would be easy. You finish one lesson only to realize you have several more waiting. And sometimes, after staring at the screen for hours, a quiet thought appears: “I can’t do it anymore.” The photograph above captures that feeling perfectly. A pair of scissors is cutting through the words “I can’t do it,” leaving us with an unfinished sentence. But perhaps that is exactly where the story changes. Because sometimes, “I can’t do it” is not the end of the sentence. Maybe it is simply the moment before we say: “I can’t do it… yet.” To the teacher waking up early for students on the other side of the world. To the teacher staying awake late becaus...