Dear Mrs. Not-Even-An-English-Teacher-Anymore,

It had always been a career dream of mine to become an English teacher, as by now I’m sure you know, but never was I sure of the age group I wanted to teach. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school when I was put through your AP English Language and Composition class that I understood that that’s exactly where I was supposed to be in order to find out.

I was honestly a nervous wreck walking into your classroom for the first time. After hearing so many upperclassmen express the struggles they faced in your class, I was anxious to see how my year would play out. I had heard the rumors of how tough of a grader you were, and how much homework you assigned to students who just didn’t have the time to complete it. It almost makes me laugh now thinking back to that first day of school, because I quickly understood that all I had to do was focus and put in all of my effort and you would help me get through it.

As much as it hurts to say, I will be the first to admit that I was not your greatest student, and I was not your prize pupil. However, I was a student who never ceased to be amazed at what I was learning.

Don’t get me wrong, analyzing letters from former presidents and other important public figures was definitely not the reason I looked forward to your class every day (and it definitely wasn’t the in-class writing assignments that made me excited either). I made sure to never miss one of your classes because every day I was able to experience someone else’s passion about something that I felt my heart being drawn to.

We studied grammar in depth, and we learned what making a perfect sentence was all about. Your class showed me how to find the hidden meaning in every kind of text, and while I was constantly annoyed about having to read essays over and over until my annotations were enough, I am now humbled to be standing in your shoes as someone who will teach the same things to students. Although my students will be much younger, hopefully they will be just as excited to learn from me as I was to learn from you.

I am very lucky to have had a teacher who is so dedicated to helping others. And that’s the thing about teachers that most people don’t understand; you aren’t here just to lecture on one subject, you’re here through it all. You help so many students outside of your small classroom, and I’m unsure if you know about the positive changes you’ve had for so many students just like me. I didn’t realize the impact you had made on me during the time I spent sitting in your classroom, but I realize it now as I go through life and remember the things I learned from that short amount of time I spent with you.

Thank you for challenging me to always be better, whether it be with my writing, my teaching endeavors, or with every other aspect of my young adult life. You pushed me to go after my dreams, and you always reminded me that nothing is impossible. Thank you for allowing me to confide in you about both my successes and my doubts.

Thank you for being my mentor, and for always sharing your stories with me. Thank you for passing on your love of a language to me. Because of you, I know that I have the ability to make someone love the English language as much as we both do (your love is so much stronger, though, and that deserves a heck of a lot of credit. How do you know so much about everything?).

Thank you for guiding me in the right direction, and thank you for inspiring me to always do what I love. I hope you never stop believing in yourself as much as I, and all of your other students, believe in you.

“Live your dream!”

Sincerely,

A forever grateful student