Whether you’re in her class or on the opposite end of the hallway, you can feel Mrs. McDonald’s energy always echoing. This has not changed since her days in high school; in fact, her graduating class of 650 students voted her “always heard” (read: the loudest person in her grade). Also staying the same since high school is her maiden name, as she married another completely unrelated McDonald: Alex. Although her loudness and last name may have stayed the same since high school, Mrs. McDonald has evolved since her teenage years.
The English teacher, now best friends with Mr. and Mrs. Goodman, hasn’t always had such a solidified group of friends. In high school, she describes herself as a floater, “[weaving] in and out of different worlds and cliques.” One thing that has always been consistent in her life, however, is volleyball.
Despite dabbling in softball her freshman year and playing golf her junior and senior years, it has always been volleyball for Mrs. McDonald. In a family full of volleyball players, the Division I setter willingly gives her Olympian mother the title of best player in the family. Shockingly, Mrs. McDonald says that in the absence of a volleyball court, we would find her not on a different field, but on the big stage. She even shined in the elementary theater spotlight, playing a baby Dragon named Snort.
Reflecting on her high school years, Mrs. McDonald says if her teachers found out that she is a high school teacher herself, they would not believe her. Her reasoning being she “just doesn’t think that teachers thought [she] took [her] academics that seriously.” Perhaps this can be accredited to the fact that her college choice was determined by volleyball rather than grades, making her obsession with her GPA incomparable to ours.
Possibly a “subtweet” to the readers, she wishes she had respected her teachers a bit more; she didn’t realize how hard they truly worked.
Against all suspicion, teachers do not live in schools and sleep on desks. If the absence of Mrs. McDonald’s voice is not a big enough hint, Mrs. McDonald has been home taking care of her new baby boy, Sinclair Alexander McDonald. Despite the all-boy burping and farting “stink” between Sinclair, Gavin and her husband, Alex, Mrs. McDonald no longer feels the need to wish for a baby girl in her boy-ridden family; she knows she will always have 12 “daughters” every volleyball season to come.
As an English teacher who admires and analyzes quotes like it’s her day job, she offers one of her own to all of us: “Relax. Be confident. Don’t compare yourself to other people. You will be successful no matter what college you go to. Be passionate. And as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ‘Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm.’”
