Sitting on my grandmother’s shaggy brown carpet as a 5-year-old was when I first began to appreciate learning. We would sit there every day of the summer while my parents were at work counting numbers on her dry erase board with a giant marker and filling out phonics workbooks. Learning came easy to me for many years to come, and I owe that to my grandmother who was a teacher herself in a district in Alabama and then in St. Louis, Mo.

Whenever I was asked what I wanted to do as a kid, I always replied, “a teacher,” without ever realizing all that the career really entailed.

With much thought and such an important decision at hand, I decided that being a teacher would be easy for me for many reasons.

As you grow older, school subjects become more complex and more work is demanded in order to do well. Noticing it or not, those formative years in your childhood are the main reason you are where you are today. Who wouldn’t want to be responsible for giving young children an education that others in certain countries aren’t lucky enough to have.

People always say teaching is a cop-out degree, but the teachers who taught you 2+2 and how to read a simple sentence are the ones who built the base for everything you now know whether you are becoming a chemical engineer, a nurse, or anything in between. Children these days also depend on school for a lot more than just their education.

Schools today are sometimes thought of as safe havens where children are able to receive two meals a day including the nutrients they may or may not receive at home, love from their teacher whether they see it or not, and the resources they need to succeed. There has also been an increase in technology in schools, allowing children that do not have access to the Internet at home to learn how to use it to their benefit.

Teachers are responsible for helping our nation’s youth thrive so that their generation can better our world.

Whenever someone says to me, “Good luck being a teacher, you’ll never make any money,” I always know exactly what they’re thinking and I know exactly how to respond. I could sit in a cubicle all day or mess around with numbers that I will never enjoy or be interested in, or I could spend time with children every single day helping them thrive so that they will one day be successful in their own career.

Being a teacher was an easy decision because I love children, the innocent sense of humor they all seem to have, and the smiles on their faces when they finish an art project or solve a small word problem.

Children need the encouragement from their educators.

With this career, I could be a child's only support system when their family at home isn’t there for them. I could help those who excel above their peers get the accelerated teaching they need to not get bored. I can be the reason those children who need the extra help begin to learn at the same pace as their classmates.

My grandma taught many years in a low-income district where multiple students mentioned throughout the years that they wished they could go home with her because they were scared of what would happen to them at home, or around their neighborhood. It breaks my heart to know they trusted her more than their own families and the environment that they lived in.

I want to be that kind of person and role model for a child who needs it.

I want to be the teacher who was the reason a child kept trying hard to do well or kept a positive attitude every day.

I want to be the reason a child goes on to pursue their dreams and make their family proud. Playing that large of a role in a child’s life and time of major development is crucial and worth more than any amount of money in the world.

With a degree in education, I can do what I love each and every day while making a difference in someone’s life.

I want to love what I do so work isn’t work. You can’t put a price on that kind of career. That is why I decided that being a teacher would be the easiest degree for me.