I Told the Teacher “No Problem” and Meant the Opposite

Dear Delyara, The email came at 4:42 p.m. Can you send in snacks tomorrow? Can you make sure the permission slip is signed? Can you also send a plain white shirt for the class project? And because I am so practiced at sounding cooperative while my insides are collapsing, I replied, “No problem at all. I’ll take care of it.” Then I closed the email and cried in the pantry. It was a problem. Not because of the shirt or the snacks. Because every tiny extra request arrives in a life already too full and still expects to be received by a warm, organized woman with margin. I found the shirt. Bought the snacks. Signed the form. No one will ever know the cost of those three ordinary things. That’s what makes me tired in my soul, not just my body.