How one teacher changed a student’s career path and mindset
By: Annaliese Delgado
In middle school, Giana Biondolillo often raced to the bathroom to throw up before the lesson started. This was her daily routine with anxiety. All it took was one person to listen to Biondolillo and make her feel seen, and that person was Ms. Love.
“She was one of the main reasons I made it through 8th grade,” said Biondolillo. “I only hope that the day I become a teacher, I can be half the teacher she was to me.”
Surviving the day was more important for Biondolillo than attending classes; her days felt stretched, and her anxiety was at an all-time high. Her waves of nausea and stomach pains prevented her from having a normal middle school experience.
At home, Biondolillo admits that she wasn’t much understood either.
“I felt judged, misunderstood, and just lonely,” said Biondolillo. “My mom didn’t understand anxiety and thought I was being dramatic.”
While Ms. Love is now retired, Biondolillo recalls how Ms. Love spoke about her personal experience with panic attacks and how her daughter often struggled with them too. Biondolillo remembers Ms. Love’s personality shining through her teaching style, with quirky catchphrases that made learning fun and made Biondolillo crack a smile or two in her class.
Originally, Biondolillo enrolled in CSI expecting to major in Science, Letters, and Society, but quickly realized she wanted to pay Ms. Love’s support forward. Biondolillo has worked at Richmond County Day Camp and as a teaching assistant in a daycare to start her work with kids: experiences that she believes will better suit her to one day teach a class of her own.
Biondolillo reflected on her past mental health and the progress she’s made since. Although she still suffers from anxiety to this day, she doesn’t grant it the same power it used to have over her. She’s grown with it.
“I went from sad, depressed, and scared of the world to being able to conquer any obstacle that I face,” said Biondolillo. “Even though I fall sometimes, I’m always about to dust myself off.”
