“Did you really write this?” my teacher said. He held my story in his hand, pinning it from the bottom with his finger and thumb. I nod. “I swear.” “I hope you’re not lying and someone else wrote it for you,” he says as he hands it to me. I grab it and see the grade on the top of the paper, a 100% followed by a comment, literally the words he just said. *** This is probably a weird story to bring up because it’s a back-handed compliment, but the comment meant a lot to me. Why? Because it wasn’t blind praise, which I think it’s extremely dangerous. Throughout my life, some of the people close to me praised me a lot, especially when it came to my writing. They’d say things like, “you’re talented” or “your work is the best thing I’ve ever read.” It makes sense to […]