Whenever someone asks me what my major is and I tell them that I’m studying Elementary Education, I get the usual “wow, you’re brave!” or “I could never handle kids like that.” I understand that it’s not necessarily some people’s first choice as an occupation, but it is for me.

I hate when people tell me how selfless the job is, and that the pay isn’t “that good” but it’s totally an amount you can live comfortably from, whatever that’s supposed to mean. I already know all of this, and I don’t mean to seem as if I’m stuck up and don’t want your opinion, but I really don’t.

I’m fully aware how selfless my careers going to be. I know that I’m going to have to put in my own money for supplies my students need, or the hours of sleep I’m going to lose from grading papers or whatever else. As exhausting as that sounds, that’s what I can see myself doing in life.

I’m the type of person that has to always be doing something productive, and if I feel that it’s not productive or meaningful, I don’t see much point in doing it. I always knew that I need a career that was centered around the same type of ideology. Do I worry about money? Of course I do, everyone does. But I’m not going to let it sway my thinking when it comes to something that I’m going to be doing for a good majority of my life.

So the next time you think of putting your two cents into telling someone that they’re teaching career is going to be exhausting, they probably are already aware of that. But they also know that they’re going to change hundreds of children’s lives, and that is worth the exhaustion.