Tutoring sounds like a very professional activity until you actually do it.

At first, you imagine yourself inspiring young minds and explaining complex ideas with ease. In reality, you spend half the session trying to remember how long division works and the other half saying, “Okay… let’s read the question one more time.”

One of the funniest things about tutoring is how creative students become when they don’t want to do work. Suddenly they’re thirsty, tired, confused, hungry or deeply interested in the history of pencils. A 10-minute homework task can somehow turn into a full discussion about dinosaurs, conspiracy theories or why calculators should be allowed in every situation.

But tutoring is actually pretty entertaining because no two students are the same. Some students answer every question with confidence (even when they’re completely wrong). Others act like saying “I don’t know” costs money. And then there’s always one student who understands everything instantly and makes you question your own academic career.

The best part is the random moments when things finally click. A student who spent 20 minutes fighting for their life against fractions suddenly solves a problem alone and looks like they’ve just discovered fire.

Somehow, despite the confusion, the fake “I forgot my homework” excuses and the occasional maths crisis, tutoring ends up being genuinely rewarding…mostly because watching someone finally understand something never gets old.

Samantha Nguyen