When Anger Doesn't Heal

When Anger doesn't Heal: From Kuwait to the United States, Teacher's Memoir is a story of emotional struggles stemming from the past. It is also a story of strength, determination, and perseverance, and yet defeat of a teacher who lacks the experience and cultural knowledge of her students. The frustration from both sides, teacher and students, is conveyed through pages and pages in this book. Her story and her students' stories may not be similar yet the impact of her childhood trauma and their childhood atrocities is comparable. While Ms. Dashti tried to find ways to help her students to succeed, she was continuously faced with obstacles. Not always the students who made her feel unwelcome, sometimes teachers or certain situations would suddenly arise and cause a ripple effect underneath the mote guarding her emotions. Those ripples stirred her past, her rage, her frustration triggered by memories of troubled relationship with her oldest sister Zahra. The stifled emotions are always waiting in a corner for the exact moment to ambush and infuse the past with the present reminding Ms. Dashti of repressed childhood memories. The threads of the past and present weave through the story in certain chapters when Ms. Dashti is faced with an event that shocks her senses and therefore summons the demons of her sister to this dimension. Waves of anger would ensue, and her body would endure the stress. Yet, she continues to fight until the end.