You’re drowning in lesson plans. You’re exhausted and feeling stretched thin from trying to keep up with your classes and your part-time job(s) and all your hours of fieldwork. You’re beginning to see what it’s really like to be an actual teacher - and it’s not easy.

You’ve had professors who have inspired you to dedicate your entire life to the field of teaching. You’ve also had that professor who has scared you out of your mind and made you say over and over in your head, “I’m changing my major. I have to. I can’t do this.”

You’ve been the victim of eye rolls, negotiations involving “no” and only “no,” and meltdowns over play-dough and snowman stencils. And if you’re an Early Childhood major like I am, you’ve also probably witnessed a little too many small poop disasters.

The feeling of not being good enough is one you deal with every day, and worrying that you might not ever be good enough nearly brings you to tears (let’s be real...sometimes there are some real tears involved).

Then you find that when you’re sitting in math class you’re wondering if Johnny ate any of his chicken and potatoes for lunch, or if Molly finally participated in carpet time. The thousand little moments you’ve spent with them have shown you what enormous responsibility you’ve been given. Without even knowing it, you’ve fallen in love with their beautiful little hearts, and you cannot even imagine what it’s going to be like when you finally have your very own class to teach and to love.

They’re always discovering something new - and everything is so incredibly exciting to them. You want to be a part of that child’s journey of learning what it’s like to be a good friend, how to read their names, and how people can work together to build castles of Legos.

You’re going to meet kids that drive you absolutely crazy, and others that you feel like they want nothing to do with you. These children need you to love them and to be their friend when no one else will. They are counting on you to believe in them with all your heart - so please don’t let them down.

You’re not in this field for the money. Or all those amazing benefits and summers off (that’s actually not a real thing, sorry). You chose this career because you discovered that you want to spend your life playing a part of young children’s lives and shaping their little minds.

And at the end of the day, when you’re squished into a mini-sized chair eating chocolate chip teddy grahams having a conversation about flying airplanes to Toys “R” Us and growing up to be Mickey Mouse someday, you realize that you know with absolute certainty you’re right where you belong. Because this is what you were made to do. You were born to teach. And you are going to touch the hearts of countless little children along the way.