Let’s just get this out of the way first: being an educator is hard. Like, trying to herd angsty, pubescent cats hard. It’s days that extend far beyond the last bell, mountains of paperwork and lesson plans and miles and miles of education legislation red tape. It’s a room full of thirty (or more) students that may or may not care about what they’re scheduled to learn about that day. And, get this: teachers get paid in real life Monopoly money. But it’s my dream job. I know what you’re thinking. “But, Carson, why would anyone want that? That sounds terrible.” And you’re totally right. It does sound terrible, but just as one cannot ignore all the obstacles and struggles of being an educator, one also cannot ignore all the wonderful and moving parts of it, either.

I am studying to be a high school English teacher. Yes, you read that right -- I want to be a high school teacher. English and Language Arts appeal to me most overtly because I love literature, and I love talking about literature. I also love grammar -- I think it rocks. However, English interests me, in particular, because our society directly associates one’s ability to communicate with one’s intelligence. That is, others’ perception of your intelligence is directly dependent upon your ability to communicate an idea. I think this is a little bit ludicrous because how one talks has to do with a myriad of things, none of which are related to one’s innate intelligence. Fortunately, there is a way around this particular social association. It’s actually pretty easy to learn to manipulate a language to effectively communicate ideas. This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why I am so passionate about becoming an educator: so I can help students learn to speak their minds.

I actually used to despise English, but I had a really, really awesome English teacher my sophomore year of high school. As cheesy as it sounds, she honestly helped me learn just how much I loved it. I learned how much I loved reading literature and expanding my vocabulary and, believe it or not, even diagramming sentences. Hindsight has a funny way of inspiring us, and the things about myself that my teacher helped me see most definitely inspired me to pursue a career as an educator.

However, I’m not naïve. I know that not all the students that come through my future classroom are going to have these "ah-ha" moments like the one that I had. But to me, it would be completely worth it for just one. All I want for my career is to be good to my students; I want to teach them well, and help them any way I can, whether it’s related to their academics, or if they need help with a college or job application, or if they just want to talk -- anything that I can manage. An educator is one of the only occupations I can think of having that would allow me to be available to students in this way. Teaching is hard work. Teaching is sometimes not as rewarding as we wish it would be. Sometimes, teaching is so much more rewarding than we ever could have hoped. That is why I want to be a teacher.