“Really? You want to be a teacher? Why…?”

Don’t you remember that one teacher you had that really pushed you? That made you feel like you were so much more than what you believed? That was constantly on your back because they saw how great you were before you did? Don’t you remember that one teacher that made you a better person? Because I do, and that is why I choose to teach.

Throughout my years of schooling, I was fortunate enough to have teachers that have truly changed my life. In more ways than one, the teachers that have impacted me have bettered more than just my grades and test scores, but also myself, as a person. I can honestly say that I know what it’s like to have had a teacher that has made me a better person, and that is why I choose to teach.

I choose to teach because it is beautiful. There is no other job in the entire world that holds the beauty that teaching does. As a teacher, you have the power to change. You have the power to make someone’s day. You have the power to make someone’s life. You have the power to let someone know that they are worthy of everything in the world, and that they can do anything they set their mind to. I choose to teach because everyone needs a little help sometimes, and what better way to help, than teach?

I choose to teach because children are wonderful. No matter the age, race, gender, grade or developmental level, children have a way of making your day great. They are full of energy, life, happiness, ideas, creativity, and knowledge, and if that is not something that could convince you to spend as much time as you possibly can with them, then I don’t know what would. And if you ever meet a child that is not full of only positive things, you have the power to change them, and that alone is just as wonderful as the child itself.

I choose to teach because I know what it feels like to feel absolutely incompetent. I have sat in a countless number of classrooms and felt like I knew nothing, and that feeling is on my list of “Top Ten Worst Feelings Ever”. I have sat at my dinner table far too many times than I would like to admit, crying, because “I just didn’t get it”, and felt like there was no one that could help me understand. Feeling stupid and helpless is not something I would ever wish upon anyone, and that is why I choose to teach.

I choose to teach because I have never come across something that makes me smile the way teaching does. You know that smile you get sometimes that pulls your cheeks so far back it actually hurts your face? That is why I choose to teach. Because that smile is an every day occurrence. That smile is what spreads across my face every morning I wake up and remember that I get to go teach a class, every time I hear a student say my name, every time I see a hand shoot up into the air because they know the answer to my question. Every single one of my days begins and ends with the kind of smile that hurts my face, and that is why I choose to teach.