From Burnout to Breakthrough: The Story Behind Ink & Insights

Teaching is one of the greatest jobs in the world, but it can also be one of the hardest.

Like many teachers, I’ve always loved helping students, creating engaging lessons, and finding new ways to make learning come alive.

But during lockdown, I hit a wall.

At the time, I was working in Asia, living alone and working from my 38-square-meter apartment. I was juggling three different roles, logging 12-hour days - often without time to eat. Work calls and emails didn’t stop at 5 p.m.; sometimes, they’d come in as late as 10 p.m. I hadn’t been home in 18 months, and the exhaustion was more than just physical.

I was burned out.

During that time, I cried. A lot. I felt depressed, guilty, and stretched so thin that I knew I wasn’t able to give my students the best version of me. And that broke me.

For almost 10 years, teaching had been my passion and a big part of my identity. I loved my job. And in the space of a few short months, I had grown to resent it.

So much so that when I was offered my dream job in Europe, just a two-hour flight from home, I turned it down. Not because I didn’t want it, but because deep down, some of that passion for it was still there. But because I knew I had nothing left to give.

Once I returned home from Asia, I decided to take a sabbatical from teaching and to use that time to return to university and reflect on my teaching career.

One thing I’ve always loved is creating resources, coming up with creative ways to teach, designing engaging activities, and making lessons flow smoothly (also, something aesthetically pleasing just feels so much better). So, on a whim, I took some of my old resources, polished them up and uploaded them to TpT and TES, not expecting anything to happen.

But then…they sold.

So, I uploaded a few more.

Then a few more.

Before I knew it, I had a tiny but growing business.

I created Ink & Insights on a whim. But I’ve come to realise it’s more than that to me now. I know what it’s like to be overwhelmed, overworked, and out of time. I know what it’s like to scramble when the lesson runs short, when students finish reading faster than expected, or when you need a creative writing lesson that isn’t just “write a story about anything.”

So, that’s where Ink & Insights was born - from the burnout, yes, but also from the spark that remained underneath. The part of me that couldn’t quite leave the classroom behind and still wanted to help teachers feel prepared, inspired, and connected to what they were teaching.

Now, I create for teachers who want resources that are ready to use but still meaningful. For students who deserve writing prompts that feel like an invitation, not a chore. For writers who need a little magic to get unstuck.

I’m now back in the classroom part-time, balancing teaching with this growing business. And that balance? It’s made me fall in love with teaching all over again, but on my terms this time.

Ink & Insights is my second chance - at creativity, at teaching, and at living a life that actually fits.

If you’re feeling burnt out, just know: you’re not broken. You might just be ready to begin again in a different way. And when you are, I’ll be right here, cheering you on.