Education was always a plan in the back of my mind but was never a career I really considered for myself.

I always knew I would grow up to major in English, but I never knew what I wanted to do with my degree. On occasion, there were a few people who would listen to me talk about teaching English with distaste. From a financial standpoint to considering different career options, I've heard it all.

There were also encouraging people who pushed me in the direction of using my English degree for teaching. To me, being a teacher has never been about money. When you find a job you are passionate about, you become so excited that money is the least of your worries. Rather than money or benefits, teaching is about further educating and inspiring our future generation.

Waking up every day to a job I love is far more important to me than how much money I am going to make.

When my students walk through my classroom, they will always have a friend first within their teacher. I will be there when they struggle and when they succeed. From bad days to good days, I can only hope to be there to mentor them. To be able to truly change the lives of my students is the reason that I want to educate, just like the teachers I had who impacted my life.

I am excited to teach all of the English classics that I love and to see my students develop a passion for English as well. I get to be there as they discover that they are might grow up to be future writers and teachers, too.

Finding out that teaching was the career I wanted to do was not easy. I changed my major so many times and fought teaching due to what other people thought about it. By the time I was a sophomore in college, I had changed my major seven times. Finally, I gave in and found that I had finally picked the right major for me.

I am thankful that I tried different majors, rather than to have been stuck in the wrong field. I discovered that through all of these different careers, the one I had never really considered would ironically be the one.

For any aspiring teacher, you will have others come at you with every excuse as to why teaching isn't an ideal career.

If you truly have a passion and a gift to educate others, don't let that stop you. Having a heart that is called to teach only means that it is big enough to fulfill just that. Consider all of the little minds you will get to shape and the lives you get to impact.

Teaching isn't an easy job, but at the end of the day, it is so worth it. To educate is rewarding, and I am looking forward to it being my lifelong career.