I’ve had the conversation a thousand times. Someone asks me what I’m getting my degree in, I tell them I’m pursuing education. They say, “Aw! What grade do you want to teach?” I respond with high school, and I watch the excitement in their eyes quickly fade to concern. “Oh…” they say. “Are you sure about that? Have you seen the videos on Facebook of students throwing chairs at teachers? Aren’t they all taller than you?”

The answer to all three of those questions is yes, but I have never been so sure about anything in my life. I absolutely love all of my students that I’ve had with all my heart. Sure, they might get sassy sometimes. Sure, they’ve talked while I was talking and not followed directions. Yes, they tower over me, even in my heels. But even on the hardest of days, a student taking a second to say, “Thank you, Ms. Hunter” or “I had fun in class today” is enough to keep me going.

Will I probably want to give up when I actually get into my career? Probably. There’s a reason there’s a teacher shortage. Will I probably cry at some point during my commute home because my lesson didn’t go as I had planned that day? I know I will. Will that stop me? No it won’t.

I’m not going to lie, hearing about school shootings or students lashing out at teachers is scary to me. I wouldn’t be human if it wasn’t. However, something that I’ve learned is that all those students need is someone to love them and to not give up on them. I have always had the highest expectations for myself, so I will always have the highest expectations for all of my students. I won’t give up on them, and I’ll always believe that they can succeed, because sometimes a student doesn’t have someone who believes that they can. I won’t be their friend, but I’ll be someone they can talk to, someone they can look up to, someone they can trust. I want to inspire, I want to educate, I want someone to look back and say, “Because of Ms. Hunter, I didn’t give up.”

So stop telling me I shouldn’t teach high school. I got this.