[dontknownuthin]

It is not illegal to have these feelings but she will lose her teaching credentials and job, and go to jail if she acts on any feelings between you. Also, I don't think anyone questions the intensity of your feelings or their validity. I and others though, do question an adult teacher inappropriately encouraging such feelings from a student who is a minor and 16. You also say this teacher is like a mother to you - the confusion of maternal feelings and romantic love demonstrates that you are blurring some lines with how you are percieving this relationship, or how it's playing out between the two of you. We don't date our mothers or have crushes on them but we can certainly feel passionately about family.

I think your relationship with her is a bit too personal, and would recommend you to not see her outside of school and only relate to her on a basis of teacher and student. When you graduate from school and you are also 18, you might be able to have a relationship with one another but it would still cause her considerable problems with her career and current job because everyone would know you had been her student.

Am I also to understand both you and the teacher are females? Part of your intensity of feelings for her might be because when you are coming to grips with different sexual preferences than the masses, and you find someone with whom you can be yourself and who does not judge you for it, it can make you feel more love and acceptance for yourself. It can cause you to really just love being who you are so much more than usual, and to love being with the person because they make you feel that way about yourself. But there are many people your own age who will also connect with you in this way - it just takes time to find them.

IN the meantime, telling your friends about all this love for your teacher could be enough to get her fired, and spending time outside of school with her could get her fired, and going any further such as with romantic contact or communications between the two of you could get her jailed. All around, this is not a healthy relationship for you - any more than living on chocolate cake might be really appealing but would be really, really bad for you.