Sam Mariano

I like to write love stories for villains. Sometimes heroes or anti-heroes, but I love the villains most.

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

He’s a 10, but… he kidnapped you because he needed a “girlfriend” to take home for the holidays. 😒🎁

📖 Amazon: https://t.co/8IUKU5g9VP
📱 Radish: https://t.co/57IyHdGR3o

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSimsDirect Re: animals, would still love a fix for baby chicks that will not grow up

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@RepAOC Yes, fight it hard. There’s no chance my child will be using any technology that requires facial scans. I’ll cancel our internet first.

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@bluewmist I haven’t updated the app since before the change so it is still Twitter on my phone 😅

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSims Please fix prom not working

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@Megan_With_No_H Yes, I say this all the time. I remember when I could go months, maybe a year without ever having to think about the president. Good times.

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSimsDirect I’m unable to access most of the Deck the Palms rewards, they still say wait for that week to unlock when we only have four days left…

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSims My game says the event ends in four days but so many of the items are still locked?

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSimsDirect I had the graduation photo being blank one. 🥲 Spent 30,000 years going through university to get her degree, and then a blank portrait 😭 Glad it’s getting fixed but I really hope you guys fix the chickens not aging properly (baby chicks never grow up) soon

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSimsDirect Where did all the swatches for our holidays go? I used to have a bunch, and I used some to create summer vacation, and now I have very few swatches and none are summer

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@UpTambourine That’s when you say, “I don’t know, what are you planning to buy her?”

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@mypopgirlspace @TheSimsDirect When this stopped showing up for me, I went into edit mode (build mode) on the auditorium for prom and just added one item and saved. Then I made sure to go to school with my sim on Friday (in case a new principal needed to be generated) and prom started again that weekend for me

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSimsDirect @TheSims Can’t play my legacy household at all because of a “temporary clone situation” exception. Already got rid of her skillful sleep mastery perk, but hoping this gets fixed with the patch 🤞🏻

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@curiosityonx Humans

[gel @gelsbelovedfitz]

it's okay to seek comfort in stories you see yourself in, but fiction isn't supposed to be a mirror every time. to me, it kind of defeats what literature does best. aren't you curious to see through a worldview that challenges your own, to feel empathy for someone different frm u

[Travis Akers 🇺🇸 @travisakers]

A message from a Kindergarten teacher:

After forty years in the classroom, my career ended with one small sentence from a six-year-old:

“My dad says people like you don’t matter anymore.”

No sneer. No malice. Just quiet honesty — the kind that cuts deeper because it’s innocent. He blinked, then added, “You don’t even have a TikTok.”

My name is Mrs. Clara Holt, and for four decades, I taught kindergarten in a small Denver suburb. Today, I stacked the last box on my desk and locked the door behind me.

When I started teaching in the early 1980s, it felt like a promise — a shared belief that what we did mattered. We weren’t rich, but we were valued. Parents brought warm cookies to parent nights. Kids gave you handmade cards with hearts that didn’t quite line up. Watching a child sound out their first sentence felt like magic.

But that world slowly slipped away. The job I once knew has been replaced by exhaustion, red tape, and a kind of loneliness I can’t quite describe.

My evenings used to be filled with construction paper, glitter, and glue sticks. Now they’re spent filling out digital reports to protect myself from angry emails or lawsuits. I’ve been yelled at by parents in front of twenty-five children — one filming me with his phone while I tried to calm another child mid-meltdown.

And the kids… they’ve changed too. Not by choice.

They arrive tired, anxious, overstimulated. Their tiny fingers know how to swipe a screen before they can hold a crayon. Some can’t make eye contact or wait in line. We’re expected to fix all of it — to patch the gaps, heal the trauma, teach the curriculum, and document every move — in six hours a day, with resources that barely fill a drawer.

The little reading corner I once built, full of soft beanbags and paper stars, was replaced by data charts and “learning metrics.” A young principal once told me, “Clara, maybe you’re too nurturing. The district wants measurable results.”

As if kindness were a weakness.

Still, I stayed. Because of the small, holy moments that no spreadsheet could measure —
a whisper of, “You remind me of my grandma.”
a shaky note that read, “I feel safe here.”
a quiet boy finally meeting my eyes and saying, “I read the whole page.”

Those tiny sparks were my reason to keep showing up.

But this last year broke something in me.

The aggression grew sharper. The laughter in the staff room turned to silence. The light went out of so many eyes. I watched brilliant teachers — my friends — vanish under the weight of burnout, their joy replaced by survival.

I felt myself fading too, like chalk on a board that’s been wiped one too many times.

So today, I began my goodbye. I pulled faded art off the walls and tucked thirty years of handmade cards into a single box. In the back of a drawer, I found a letter from a student from 1998:

“Thank you for loving me when I was hard to love.”

I sat on the floor and cried.

No party. No applause. Just a handshake from a young principal who called me “Ma’am” while checking his notifications.

I left my rocking chair behind, and my sticker box too. What I carried with me were the memories — the faces of hundreds of children who once trusted me enough to reach out their hands and learn. That can’t be uploaded. It can’t be measured. It can’t be replaced.

I miss when teachers were partners, not targets. When parents and educators worked side by side, not in opposition. When schools cared more about wonder than numbers.

So if you know a teacher — any teacher — thank them. Not with a mug or a gift card, but with your words. With your respect. With your understanding that behind every test score is a heart that cared enough to try.

Because in a world that often overlooks them, teachers are the ones who never forget our children.

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@StephenM You can’t just keep using the words “terrorist”and “terrorist attack” to things it clearly doesn’t apply to and expect those terms to retain any meaning. 9/11 was a terror attack. This isn’t

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

😂

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@chaimartini That’s a good reason

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@Clayton_Sandell @KDVR That poor kid

[Sam Mariano @Sam__Mariano]

@TheSims This looks awesomeeeeee! 😍😍