Ever wondered what your favorite teachers and staff members were like in high school? Did they like high school? Were they a teacher’s pet? Well, bringing it back from a decade ago, Retrospective with Anya Martin has your answers! 

Even if you haven’t had a class with Mrs. Parasida, you’ve probably heard of the living-exclamation-point Burgenstock enthusiast. And if you have had the luck to have her as a teacher, it is easy to see why the students love her. Today we dive deep into her high school years. 

Mrs P: I did my Halloween interview yesterday and I’m excited. This is about high school? Oh Lord. 

Mrs. Parasida said she went to Riverside.

Me: And how long have you taught at Lincoln Park? 

Mrs P: This is my tenth year.

Me: Did you like high school?

Mrs P: Um, yes and no. Certain aspects of it yes, certain aspects of it no. So.

Me: What was your favorite subject? 

Mrs P: I mean, I liked math. I also liked art. So that was my other favorite. 

Me: Do you have a favorite teacher that you remember? 

Mrs P: I do, my favorite teacher was my math teacher in tenth and eleventh grade. His name was Mr Marnicio. And he retired my eleventh grade year, but he was my favorite teacher. So, I still get to see him sometimes.

Me: And, I think you have, but did you always like math?

Mrs P: In high school, yes, in middle school not so much. It took me a while to like math in middle school but I got the right teacher and then I started to like it after that so. 

Me: Is algebra your favorite “of the maths”? 

Mrs P: um, I guess so? I like Algebra 1, I like to teach algebra 1. But I have college algebra this semester and I’m also really enjoying that, so it’s a different type of algebra. So I guess we’ll say algebra is my favorite “of the maths”.

Me: Did you always want to be a teacher?

Mrs P: No!

Me: What would you be if you weren’t a teacher?

Mrs P: No, I didn’t want to be a teacher! At first I wanted to be an art therapist. And I wanted to work with kids with special needs and be an art therapist. But then I went back for my masters in education and here we are as a teacher. 

Me: So [what] did you go to college for?

Mrs P: I went, my bachelors is in psychology and studio art, and I went back for my masters in secondary math education. So yea, no, I did not want to be a teacher. But here we are. 

Me: If you didn’t teach math what would you teach? 

Mrs P: What would I teach, not English, I wouldn’t want to grade essays. I guess art, if I didn’t teach math I would want to teach art. So. 

Me: Would you consider yourself a teacher’s pet? 

Mrs P: In high school, absolutely. One hundred percent. For sure. And I think I was that way because my mom was a teacher. So I knew what to do for the teachers to have an easier life. So yes, absolutely, 100 percent. 

Me: Were you a good student?

Mrs P: For the most part, yeah, yea, for the most part. 

Me: Do you have any notable funny stories?

Mrs P: Um, notable funny stories…

Me: I’ve heard a couple about Riverside.

Mrs P: Yea, it was, it was a crazy time. I don’t know if I’d necessarily say this is funny, but it’s certainly notable. Um, we had an English teacher my senior year, and your mom might remember this*, um, she just stopped coming to school. And she, I mean, I don’t know what happened, I don’t… she stopped coming to school and I sometimes understand why she stopped coming to school, so. She stopped coming one day and we had a, we had written essays about Beowulf and we never got them back. So our running joke our senior year was that we wanted our Beowulf essays back. So, maybe not funny, um, since it is like mental health awareness time, but you know, she just didn’t come back to school, so. Here we are.

Me: What would you say you were like in high school other than teacher’s pet? 

Mrs P: I played sports so I was like one of those kids, I was an athlete. That was what I did. I was a pretty good student. I played basketball and I was on the track team. And softball, I played softball in the summers too.

Me: Which was your favorite of those?

Mrs P: Basketball.

Me: Would you have gone to Lincoln Park?

Mrs P: No, I probably wouldn’t have.

Me:  What would you, if you did, what major would you? Art?

Mrs P: Yea, probably. Probably media. 

Me: Do you think you would’ve gotten in for art?

Mrs P: I was, I was, pretty good. Maybe. Yea, I was pretty good.

Me: Do you have any advice for, I don’t know, generalized? 

Mrs P: Like high school advice?

Me: Sure.

Mrs P: Yea! You have to remember this is a blip in your life. And I know right now everything seems so important and it seems so like this is it like this is the be all to end all but this is just like such a small portion of your life so you cant you cant let everything get you down and you have to remember that you have to enjoy what you can enjoy and ignore the rest. So, this is such a small portion of your life and it does get better later on. That’s my advice. 

Me: Anything else you would like to…

Mrs P: I don’t think so, no!

Me: I was thinking about it, and if you wanted to be an art therapist and had the degree for it, why didn’t you? Why’d you go back for your masters in education?

Mrs P: I would’ve had to get a masters in art therapy — I just had the related undergrad degrees! I decided on education instead of that. I originally planned on a masters in special education after I decided not to pursue art therapy— mostly because jobs are not readily available and I wanted to make sure I got a degree in which I could get a job. After going to a seminar at RMU about the education programs they talked about how schools needed math teachers and I decided what the heck I’ll try [the] classes and sure enough here I am!

*My mother graduated with Mrs Parasida from Riverside. My mom has confirmed this, saying “Oh yea, we all thought she lost her mind.”