"You really are never going to make any money"

"You have to do a lot of work after hours"

I could go on, because we have all heard them. The second you tell someone you're studying to be a teacher instantly rude remarks begin about the pay, and work you're going to put in. As if we don't already know.

The reason I want to teach has nothing to do with the pay, or even the amount of hours I put in. I want to teach to make a difference just like every other student studying education.

I grew up playing teacher like almost every other little girl. I wanted to teach, because I had such awesome teachers who influenced me so greatly that I then wanted to do exactly what they did to me, to every future student I would cross paths with.

I want to wake up, and head to school with a smile on my face every single day, because I love my job just that much. I want to walk into a classroom full of kids who are eager to learn, I won't say every day because they are kids, but most days. I dream about those smiles once they finally get a problem right trying to solve for what felt like hours. I want my students to go home, and when their parents ask what they learned today, they have an entire list of objectives they accomplished. And for the kids who have parents who don't ask about their day at all, I want to be there for them.

The pay means so little when the reward is so high. We, future educators, have the chance to mold the mind of the generations to come. Everyday, we will face a number of students who have questions that need answers, and with those answers they learn.

So study on fellow education majors, because we will be the ones who make a direct difference every single day of our careers.