GGrowing up, my parents were both high school teachers, instilling knowledge and life lessons to students in each of their classes.

Being raised by high school teachers has its obvious benefits, like free tutoring, but it also comes with a better understanding of the significance of teachers in each community across the nation.

As I progressed through grade school, connections were made with certain teachers along the way; building relationships and also learning things I did not know at the time would become a part of who I am as an adult.

In the eighth grade, I spent a class period dressed in Roman armor pretending to be Ares for a history project.

I spoke of his story as if I was him, and because of my teacher’s enthusiasm of the topic, I fell into a trance, feeling—what I thought—Ares did during his “lifetime.”

The Ares myth I discussed had the theme of jealousy—which is a huge part of adolescent lives. A summary of the story is that Ares had an adulterous affair with the goddess Aphrodite but her husband Hephaistos trapped the pair in a golden net and humiliated them by calling the rest of the gods to witness. When Aphrodite fell in love with a handsome man, Ares grew jealous, transformed himself into a boar, and gorged the boy to death while he was out hunting.

This did not stop the god of war, as he continued to show his wrath upon everyone that stepped in his way, creating what the Greeks called mindless war.

Through my teacher’s energetic spirit, I was branded by the meaning of the story. Jealously is an emotion that can get the best of us, turning us into monsters.

However, it is just an emotion that will move on with the rest of the world. It is senseless to take your anger out on innocent bystanders just because of something like jealousy. Though it might be small, for a growing kid in eighth grade, that got me through a lot and because of my teacher’s enthusiasm, I was able to remember the lesson to this day.