It sounds so trite to say I make a difference, but I really feel, especially in a community college, I can make a difference.
Not only had I not expected a random call from Joe Biden, but I could never have imagined he would make that call to ask me out. I've been asked if I was starstruck by the fact that a U.S. senator thought I was worth a call, but I honestly wasn't. I was flattered that someone I'd heard of was interested.
I've always believed you've got to steal the joyful moments when you can.
I'm not a politician. I am an English teacher.
When I go to the supermarket, I can see people looking in my cart. So I have to be careful what I buy and when. I send my sister to Costco to pick up the personal items.
We can learn something from every single medical interaction. Every case, every patient has a lesson to teach us.
Since Beau's death, I'm definitely shattered. I feel like a piece of china that's been glued back together again. The cracks may be imperceptible-but they're there. Look closely, and you can see the glue holding me together, the precarious edges that vein through my heart. I am not the same. I feel it every day.
Back in 2008, after we'd won the election, no one really expected me to keep teaching. But I couldn't just walk away... So I did both. For eight years, that was my life's dichotomy. State receptions - and midterms. Dinner with the most powerful man on earth - and study sessions with single moms.
Most people probably don't know that Joe has a romantic side to him.
It was important to me that Beau and Hunter felt our family was whole, and that meant we got to define our relationship, not anyone else.
I mean, my students are texting me all the time. It could be 10 o'clock at night, 'Hey Dr. B., can you check my thesis statement?' You know, I'm in bed!
Actually, after many years on the campaign trail, there is not a particular food that I've come across that I would avoid.
There was a little nook on Air Force Two that contained the vice presidential seal, and I would sort of wedge myself in there and grade papers on the floor.
A lot of students who are 18 or 19 go to college partly for the social aspect of it. At the community college, people's goals are a little different. Their needs are more immediate.
The American people know Joe Biden. They know his values. They know what he stands for.
What's on my iPod? Well, certainly Bruce Springsteen.
I think I am a tough grader, because I feel like it's my job to teach them to write well. I hope my students say I'm a fair teacher.
I never took a political science course.
I think it's important how I come across to my students. I want them to see how professional women dress.
The role I have always felt most at home in is being 'Dr. B.'
