As a sophomore student at Endicott College, I have very recently made the decision to switch my major to education. Since I was young, I’ve always thought of myself as growing up to be a teacher. I come from a long family history of teachers, including my mother, two aunts, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Though I originally wanted to follow their path, I found interest in the hospitality field during my senior year of high school. Although I spent a year studying hospitality and I do love it and will continue to pursue it as my minor, I’ve finally fallen along the path that all the women in my family have before me.

For me, teaching is about making an impact in each individual student’s life. I want to teach to tell that third-grade boy who was told he was “stupid”, that he is, in fact, brilliant, and he can be an astronaut someday. I want to teach to bring the girl who is extremely shy out of her shell and allow her to bring out her true self in front of her classmates. I want to let my students know that they can be a boy or a girl if they want to, that they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up, and they can be whoever they want to be without being judged, criticized, or stereotyped in my classroom. I want to teach to make each child that comes into my classroom feel important, smart, special, valued, and inspired.

I’ve grown up wanting to be a teacher, and I have always loved working with children. Something about their young, simple, honest minds has always intrigued me. In some ways, I feel like I am still a child inside. There are so many qualities of my personality that would create such a wonderful teacher, such as patience, dedication, humor, kindness, understanding, and creativity. Though the education coursework can be a lot to handle, I keep in mind that someday I will be pursuing a career that I love. People’s personalities begin to form at a young age, and I feel that I can help shape young children into valuable, worthy adults down the road in life. I really feel that as a teacher, in a small way, I can someday change the world.