I cannot take everything they do (or don't do) to heart.

As hard as it may be for me to accept, everything that my students do, or fail to do, is not a personal attack on me. They have their own lives to lead, just as I did when I was in high school. There are so many things going on outside of the context of my classroom--just because they don't do all of their work it doesn't mean they don't like my class. While it really upsets me when they appear not to care about certain assignments, I cannot take it personally or it will literally tear me apart.