“[…] I liked him for liking me.” - a piece of journalism I regard as excellent

            From the very beginning, you know what it is about. Love. But not a usual feeling between two people that seems so extraordinary, lasting, beautiful, authentic. It was not one true love. At least not in the full meaning of it.

            Reading this article you fall in love, just like the fourteen-year-old girl, with her eight-grade history teacher. Slowly starting to see how smart, caring, understanding he is. He becomes your crush like he did among all the feminine students. As if you were there waiting for him to look into your eyes, thinking of how amazing it would be if you could talk just with him, without all those other girls. Students could listen to the stories about their teachers teenage years for hours. His unsophisticated look, the way that he walks, speaks, everything seems to be just hitting the spot. You slowly realize that he could use it easily and so he did.

Mr. Lehrer liked all of his students, but it is easily seen that he liked her the most. Thirteen-years-old at the time, fascinated by the new, young, handsome teacher just as I was reading this essay. Even when narrator made it clear that they, the young girl and her eighth-grade history teacher, had a love affair I was still, just like her, containing all of his lies, absorbing a huge mass of untruth and keeping it in a jar full of falsity closed tightly with a lid.

Feeling as if I was there if I was the girl. I fell under the spell of vaguely harmless Mr. Lehrer. It can even be said that I developed an affection towards him. Keeping reading to see if their love will survive, enjoying their truck-rides, discussions, the time they spent together. But deep inside I knew that what he was doing was wrong. Making a woman believe that you love her even if it can be clearly seen that what you do is just playing around with her feelings should be treated as the worst crime. No one should be allowed to play with the heart of another person.  

Months passed, her parents found out about the relationship between their daughter and her teacher. They decided to bring an action at law. Finally, after weeks of therapy the girl, as well as the reader, realized that it wasn’t her fault. She was the abused, innocent, underage victim and all he did was just using her.

                        If it hadn’t been for the title after reading few staves I would have thought that it was all about forbidden fruit which was the love of a young, teenage girl and 10 years older, married man. Jenny Kutner shows the beauty of essay in her piece “The Other Side of the Story” published in Texas Monthly in 2013. She made me feel what the girl feels talking to Mr. Lehrer, being touched by him. I developed an affection towards the history teacher and, just like the girl, at first, I couldn’t deal with the fact that his every single word was just a delusion.

            Apart from the gripping plot, this is written with the extremely large amount of emotions which can be easily felt while reading. It is surely one of the pieces of journalism that I personally regard as excellent. Metaphors, understatements, great vocabulary and the amazingly well written about the taboo situation are the reasons why this essay is worth reading.