On Teaching

It's senior year, the time where all the questions about the future arise. “Where do you want to go to college?” “What do you want to major in?” “What do you want your profession to be?” And I've finally found my answers. But I started this post to talk about the last one, what I want my profession to be. You guessed it from the title, a teacher. Does that make me crazy? Possibly. Growing up, when people asked me what I wanted to be, a teacher never crossed my mind. I went through stages of wanting to be a veterinarian, a ballerina, a nurse, a gymnast, and even an optometrist. Teaching was not a possibility. In fact, I remember thinking as a child that I would never become a teacher. I'm not sure why I had such an aversion to it. I played “school” or “teacher” with my dolls and stuffed animals as students quite frequently. But would I become a teacher? Definitely not.

Well, as I got older, I discovered I simply wasn't fit for the other options I had open. As for the veterinarian, nurse, and optometrist? Well... I can't handle cutting open things, or blood, or even looking at eyes closely. It disgusts me. I can't even handle an earthworm dissection in school. My teachers soon realized they couldn't make me do the more complex animal dissections. As for the ballerina and gymnast? Let's just say... I can't even manage to go up stairs without falling on my face. I was not blessed with coordination. I had no clue what I would do after I kept losing options. Then one day, a realization hit me. I had to be a teacher. The more I thought about it, the more appealing it sounded. And then it became a calling. I just knew I had to do it.

And I will. Sometimes when I tell people that is my future plan, they scoff. They call me crazy. They tell me teachers don't get payed enough for what they put up with. Maybe that's true, but nothing can change my mind. I have to do this. Don't get me wrong, many people love that I want to be a teacher, and many encourage it, saying things like, “We need more teachers who are passionate about their subject, and also like kids.” If you ask me what subject I'll teach, or even what grade, I still can't decide. But I know one thing for sure: I have to be a teacher.