Why I Teach

 

                                                                    Why I teach?

My journey to teaching was long and winding.  Even from a young age, when I would teach my younger sister the math that I'd learned in school that day, I knew I wanted to be a teacher.  Unfortunately, upon high school graduation, I had no plan, no guidance, no idea what I wanted to do with my life.  My parents moved to another state from our home of 5 years and left me behind to start college and pay my own rent.  At 18 years old, I thought I was tough and wise and could handle it, but within a year, I packed up my little Honda Civic and moved to Texas to live with my family and begin anew.    

From that moment to the moment I realized I was supposed to be in a classroom was filled with fulfilling yet unrelated jobs and experiences.  I sold shoes for a while.  I was a travel agent for a long time.  I was a Flood Data Specialist for a minute, and a Development Associate at the University of Texas for about 2 years.  In the middle of all of this, I had earned a bachelor's degree in Cultural Geography but still felt rudderless and lost.  It was while I was working at U.T. that I started having vivid dreams of being in front of a bunch of children in a classroom.  The urge to do so was so strong, being a teacher was all I could think about, and it forced me to earn a master's degree and to become a certified teacher.  2007 was the turning point year in my life.  Since then, I have been in a school nearly every day, whether it was with my 6th graders at Manor Middle School or here at Texas State with all of you.  That long road to education was winding but I'm here now and the path has never been clearer.