Sister De Neri

Charlottesville, Virginia

June 17, 2020

My 12th grade English teacher was Sister de Neri. If you end up in Hell, look her up. She‘s likely the only nun down there.

She was tough. Never smiled. And she had a handful of rules for writing. One of them was to never use the word “thing.” She said there was always a better word to use. And she was right. (She also did not like split infinitIves but dang, sometimes you can’t avoid them! Passive voice, too - but you can always avoid it.)

But she, nor no one else, clued me in on how things don’t make you happy. Glad I finally learned. Hard habit (pun intended) to break, but I’m close.