Every year I would have a dramatic reading of the Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe in my classroom for Halloween.

I felt it was one of the most powerful lessons of the year.

It was a lesson about two things:

Letting something so trivial get to you that it drives you insane.

And

Eventually guilt will surface.

This character in the story was the extreme.

The second you feel stressed, breathe take a moment to step away.

Say, so what to how someone, something looks!

But you can never run away from your guilt or your hate so don’t even go there, your personal guilt or hate will eat your insides.

Stop yourself before you are guilty.

-Jennie Nawrocki