“You know teachers don’t get paid, like, anything, right?”

“Middle school?! Bless your heart!”

“Well, at least you get summers off…”

Although I’ve heard many other things when I tell people I’ve decided to teach – middle school, specifically – these are the most common reactions. I understand. Teachers are grossly underpaid. Middle schoolers can be quite difficult. Teachers do receive a summer vacation. But none of that has been a deciding factor in my choice to teach.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to teach. I always loved school and looked up to my teachers. I remember thinking that their job seemed so cool and one day, I would have the exact same one. They made learning fun for me, so I wanted to do the same thing for other kids. Little did I know, when I got older, teaching would be more than just a fun job. It would become my biggest passion.

As a teacher, you get to meet hundreds of students. It’s pretty intimidating, if you really think about it. Hundreds of minds that are entrusted to you. Hundreds of educational careers that you make a mark on. As intimidating as it is, it is also wonderful. You get to teach these children for a whole year. You get to witness the “aha moments” when a child finally understands something they once thought would defeat them. You get to be a stable figure in their everyday lives – for some of your students, you may be the only stability they have.

Teaching is a wonderful ball of emotions. Some days it’s exhausting, some days it’s exciting. Some days go so well that, despite the workload that has piled up, you realize that this is the only thing you want to do.

Last spring, I was teaching a lesson on theme that lasted about an hour. By the time fourth period rolled around, I could recite the read aloud by heart, and had been writing basically the same things on an anchor chart all day. Needless to say, I had grown a bit tired. But fourth period was my inclusion class. These students had been struggling a lot over the past week or so, so I knew I had to use all the energy I had left to give these guys what they needed to reach mastery.

Halfway through the lesson, I lost them. All of the explanations I had used in my other classes seemed to make it worse. I had hit my teacher low-point. In a last-ditch attempt to reach these guys, I came up with a crazy story about the man on the moon. Because it was funny, they worked with me. Slowly, and then all at once, they got it. These kids that had felt annoyed and defeated finally understood the lesson. They were elated. I was elated. I went home that day so proud of myself and my students that it’s all I wanted to talk about. In one day, I had gone from my lowest teacher moment to what I still consider to be my highest.

These are the things I live for. This is why I teach.