In my best Sophia Petrillo voice- “Picture it, 2020.” It was the beginning of people being asked to stay inside for what was supposed to start off as two weeks, and ended up being months on end. Instead of going stir crazy, as many did, I found solace in my house and decided to write down some of my favorite memories as a teacher as a stream of consciousness exercise. I would visit that document daily for weeks on end. By the time mid-2020 rolled around, the file on my Google Drive was an afterthought that would be revisited off and on three years after that fateful spring whenever a pick-me-up was needed. And then the party that changed everything occurred- Christmas 2023. A brief discussion about my contributions being published in a textbook led to the revelation of the document hidden on my Google Drive for my eyes only. Encouragement led to five drafts, a ton of frustration, and the goal to cross off my bucket list- a dream my 9 year old self always had- to write a book. Hence, You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Stories of a Tired Former Teacher will be ready for publication June 2025. I hope you laugh. I hope you can relate. I hope you enjoy the stories that I’ve told at dinner parties and any event where an audience would form when they would learn that I was an educator.