Everyone has had a teacher that has always just stood out in their mind.

Whether they taught you an important life lesson, or had faith in you when it felt like no one else did, you carry those teachers and the lessons they taught, with you throughout your adult life. This is for those teachers. The ones that read you your first ever favorite book. The ones that helped you with your homework. The ones that pushed you harder than anyone else because they believed in you. This is for those teachers that go above and beyond what they are supposed to do because they care and because they believed in you.

The most important thing I can say to those teachers is thank you for the countless hours of teaching, mentoring, guiding, and caring, I could not thank you enough. As a future teacher, I hope to not only make an impact on my future students’ lives, but to follow in your footsteps and become the teacher that they will look at as a lifetime mentor.

Thank you for pushing me to see that I deserve to be successful. In everything I did, you told me exactly what I needed to take it a step further and to push myself harder. You gave me kind words and encouragement and reminded me that as longs as I didn’t give up, I would make it to where I wanted to be. Back then, I didn’t quite understand how that would help me, but now I see that you believed in me. You knew that I could push myself to my fullest potential and I just needed a little nudge to get there.

I can honestly say that I don’t know where I would be without the influence you had on me. I may have chosen a completely different path in life, but because I had teachers that pushed me to be successful, to care, and to strive to be my best self, I know that my future as a teacher is a bright one. I know that because I have the role models that I do, I can and will be successful in my career as an educator.

Teachers work their butts off to push their students to their fullest. From staying after school, to emailing, to weekends and summers of mentoring, teachers do not get enough credit for all that they do. I have experienced firsthand the benefits of having teachers who have a passion for teaching and believe in their students, and that is what inspires me to push forward every single day. When I am struggling with a paper, when I am spending every spare second studying and wondering why I am letting myself lose sleep over these things, I remind myself that it is because I want to be in my teachers’ shoes. I want to be there one day, impacting the lives of my students, just like my teachers did for me.

So again, thank you. To every teacher out there who has taken one spare moment to give a kind word, or to give a half hour of their time to study with a struggling student. To every teacher who chaperones a field trip, or reads a story to their class. You are making a bigger impact than you can ever imagine.

So, from a former struggling student, thank you. Your passion for teaching has inspired me more than you will ever know.