When you go to college, you get advice and comments from everyone. These continue when you choose a major. Whether you choose the most basic major, a subject or a career major, you’re going to get “advice” from everyone around you. I’m a special education major, and the comments are unending. Here are a few of them.

“You must like paperwork.”

No, I don’t like paperwork, and you want to know why? Because no one likes paperwork. On top of that, doing paperwork takes away from time with my students. But the benefit of doing paperwork means that I am giving a student the opportunity they haven’t been given before: a chance to learn at their own pace. There are so many opportunities for a student to learn, and that paperwork that I’m doing at my desk, in my bed or on my living room floor gives that student a chance.

“What made you choose special education?”

I could ask you the same thing: what made you choose business, math, sports administration, Spanish, biology, etc.? Just like everyone else, I work with people — they just happen to have special needs. Everyone has a moment that makes them choose a profession. Mine was the light in a student’s eyes when he finally “got it.” Despite what some people think, the students that I work with have the ability to learn; it just takes them a little more time. They have to be taught individually. I like putting in the extra time with students so that they will always have the ability to “get it.”

“That is such a hard profession.”

Yes, it is. I’m not going to deny that. I’ve been in four special education classrooms, and it’s one of the hardest things I have ever done. There are days you are going to get scratched, kicked, bit, spit on and so many other things that normal teachers don’t have to go through (not discrediting them). But at the same time, there are so many different classes and degrees of disabilities, making some classes harder than others.

Some classes have higher functioning students that can get a high school diploma. Others will never get the opportunity to live on their own. But they all have the ability to live life to the fullest. Please, don’t make it seem like my students can’t ever do anything themselves. I chose a hard profession to make things easier for them.

“Oh, you have so much patience.”

That’s not the only thing I have. I have classmates that I vent to about the kid who refused to do his work or threw a desk. There are days I just want to grab kids by the shoulders and shake them because they are their own worst enemies. Every student, whether special education or not, is annoying; at some point you lose your patience. So, yeah, I have patience, but so does every other teacher, administrator and person.

“Special education is a calling.”

You’re exactly right. I have learned that every day since I joined the education program. Teaching in general is a calling. Teaching isn’t something that you do for the money; you do it for the students. That’s why I love teaching. I work in those classrooms to make sure that students have a better understanding of the world and to help them improve their self-esteem. I make a difference in a student’s life, and so can anyone willing to try.

These are just a few of the comments I have heard; others can be rightly assumed or wrongly assumed. It hurts sometimes and makes me second guess myself for a second. But thankfully, right after that second of doubt, I go back and think about the student that smiled at me for the first time, and everything goes back to normal.

So I ask that the next time you see a student or person with a disability, you smile at them. Appreciate the person that they are; appreciate what their teachers and parents have made them to be.

When someone tells you that they are a special education major, tell them: “It’s wonderful that you have chosen to make a difference in someone’s life.” That’s all we’re trying to do, just like everyone else in the world. We just want to make a difference.