In this touching and often humorous memoir, machinist, journalist, corporate writer, public relations hack, and author Steven E. Wedel talks about how he became a high school teacher and what those first 12 years in public education meant to him. From beginning his teaching career as a 40-year-old long-haired guy with an alternative certification to teaching Advanced Placement, Wedel tells it all, including how he decorated his room as a heavy metal horror show to battles with principals, lesson plans that worked, or didn't, and going viral with his "Open Letter to Parents and Lawmakers." Through it all, his love for his students is evident.