I never wanted to be a teacher.

I know how I was as a student in middle and high school, and if I were to be my own teacher...well, I'd probably be fired for throwing a book or something at young-me's head. I was loud, disruptive, talkative, and that's being nice about it. Come to think of it, I think one of my high school history teacher's did throw stuff at me, on occasion. Regardless, I probably (definitely) deserved it. This isn't to say I was a bad student per se. I did well enough academically and was never a troublemaker. I was just annoying as all hell. I know this. In some ways, I still am. Shout out to all my professors: Sorry for being an idiot.

I'm probably making myself sound much worse than I really was, and to be fair that's most likely the case. The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think I could effectively teach anybody anything, let alone impressionable, young minds. I can't even teach myself how to cook. So even though my college path looks like an educator's route at first glance, I have no intentions of becoming a teacher.

Enter: Sejong Academy.

It's a Korean immersion school in St. Paul, Minnesota that teaches kids from pre-school through eighth grade. The immersion comes in the form of daily Korean language classes, history lessons, TaeKwonDo after school, and other Korean based activities. It's tuition-free, runs most days of the week, and offers before school care, after school care, and some weekend care as well. It's run off of government grants and volunteers, and last semester I had the distinct privilege of donating my time there. Although, I think I gained more by being there than the school did.

I was a classroom assistant for Mrs. Kang who taught a class of second and third graders. Almost all of them were some form of immigrant students, most of them from various parts of South and Southeast Asia. Many were the children of immigrant parents, while others were themselves immigrants. This actually holds true for a majority of the students through the entire school. A few days each week, I would spend a couple of hours at the school helping grade papers, tutor small groups in English and math, and essentially be the all-time-it during tag at recess.

But the greatest part about volunteering at Sejong was the time I spent helping the kids with their assignments. Though I'm not a teacher, working through difficult problems with them and seeing the look on their faces when they figured something out was more gratifying than anything else I've ever done. I even had to deal with some rowdy kids in my class, but it turns out that having blue hair is awesome, and kids respect it.

I don't know if I could ever be a teacher full time. I'm not sure I could make a career out of it, or if I even want to, but I can't say I'm fully against the idea either. Assisting at Sejong Academy showed me that life and plans are malleable, often by things we can't control. Sometimes, something as small as a second grader asking you to come back tomorrow is enough to make you rethink everything.