The Confidentiality Clause

The Confidentiality Clause

What is it about confidentiality clauses
That makes them so secretive?
So mysterious?
So clandestine?
So indicative of wrong doing?

Having one of my very own
Has forced me to close the box
In which I have stored memories
Good and bad
Less my story be told

My back is turned to that which I cannot reference
Leaving a gap in my past and a hole in my future

Ever since I was a little girl,
Playing school with my dolls
Reading books to my stuffed animals
Solving math problems for fun on my chalk board
I knew I would be a teacher
Just like so many of my relatives before me.

Junior year in high school
I, like so many of students before
And decades of students after
Took an aptitude test
Confirming my inclination towards being a teacher

Although stewardess, cow girl, and massage therapist
Were other careers in my top five,
There never seriously existed
Any competition for my career path of education.

My love for teaching, my passion
Grew with every classroom of students I greeted.
So many times, my commitment
now exhausted
Accused me of having a mistress: my steady job

And now I wonder … should I leave
Break up
Find a new lover