On occasion, I find myself wishing to be back in middle school and high school. Not because those were "the best times of my life" because I can assure you they most certainly were not.

Being in college, it's made me realize, though, how simple school was when we were younger. In college now, sure we're treated more like adults and we have more freedom than we ever did in sixth through 12th grade, but that only seems appealing for so long. However, one thing I'll always miss from going to middle and high school are my teachers.

In college, the professors teach so many different students that there's not a chance for them to genuinely get to know you as a person. They only know you by a name on a piece of paper. There's no connection.

The teachers I had when I was younger have played such a large role in my life inside and outside of school. They never gave up on me even when I did. They never let me settle for less than I was. They saw potential in me that I didn't even know I had.

When we're in middle school and high school, we're vulnerable and we don't even know it. We are still so impressionable.

I still visit my middle school teachers, seven years later, because they are people that got me to high school, they're the ones who taught me to be myself and to push myself harder. They didn't let me give up.

There was always that one teacher who always told me I'd go to college and make something of myself and I never believed them but here I am, in college making something of myself.

In high school, it's a different playing field. We're on the fast track to the rest of our lives. The teachers in high school guide us to our future.

The beginning of senior year is when we have to start applying to college. We have to write the infamous college essay and make sure it's absolutely perfect. I wrote my essay so many times and I always brought it to my creative writing teacher to help me edit. I trusted them with the writing I did in my class so it was easy for me to trust them with my essay.

Teachers have the ability to influence their students in a positive manner just by showing they care about teaching us. When a teacher cares, so does the student.

I still visit my teachers because it's my way of saying thank you.