When I was a kid, I loved being a leader. I was always a teacher’s pet, regardless of the subject. I loved being at school and learning. I would always volunteer to read aloud in class, and I loved playing pretend.
As I grew older, I discovered that I had a special interest in younger children. I didn’t have a younger sibling, but when my younger cousins were over, I would always give them my undivided attention. I would make them play school with me, and I was the teacher, of course. I also loved setting up my stuffed animals in “desks” and would make pretend lessons to present to my toys. I eventually got my babysitting license and would babysit children in my area. I was specifically drawn to kids with special needs or those who needed more attention. I would come up with activities to do with the kids. I remember creating a whole superhero storyline where a friend and I recorded videos of different characters who made the story move along. The kids loved it.
In middle school, I participated in my school’s buddy system, where the older middle schoolers would be paired with students in younger grades. We would read to them and do engaging activities. I loved it so much. My middle school English teacher told me that I would make a fantastic teacher one day. I disputed the idea at first, but when I learned more about the profession, I realized that I was interested in education, so I dove deeper and learned as much as I could about kids.
During COVID, I lost my interest for a long time. I didn’t think that working with kids was for me as all of my friends and family would talk so negatively about it. I really hated the attitude everyone had about teachers and school in general. My friends would tell me it was weird that I was a babysitter, and it started to get to me. Being isolated and with nothing else to do, I couldn’t think of any reason to keep going. Even my own teachers would talk negatively about this profession I wanted to be involved in so much.
Eventually, I was sitting in homeroom and my teacher was talking about volunteer opportunities for the summer. I wondered if there were any options where I could work with children, just to see if that career path still interested me, and there were! I applied to become a volunteer at a local summer camp following my freshman year, and I loved it. It sparked a joy in me that I had forgotten. I continued to volunteer there until I could move into a paid position and spend my summers as a counselor.
I then saw a flyer for a meeting for Educators Rising. Wondering what it was, I signed up and got involved. I learned about many different topics in education through the club and realized that I was destined to become a teacher. After attending and competing at the state conference, I was even more convinced that this was going to be my future.
I added every education class I could to my schedule for the next year: intro to education, early childhood education, child development, and more. Through these classes, I learned about many topics in education, as well as all of its challenges. It became clear to me that these topics needed to be talked about more. We won’t be able to live in a future society filled with technology and business if there is nobody to nurture and teach the next generation of students.
The most life-changing experience for me was when I was tutoring in an elementary school with a 2nd-grade class. These kids had been pushed back by COVID-19. I had some students who didn’t know the difference between their letters and numbers, but I was determined. I worked with those students every day for more than four months and, eventually, they were able to write full sentences and read paragraphs. This is when I realized that I didn’t just want to make a difference, but I needed to.
I decided to become the president of the Sheboygan Area School District’s Educators Rising chapter in Wisconsin and created many opportunities for my peers to get involved. I competed again, this time choosing the most ambitious competition where I dove into my interest in neurodivergence. I created a sensory hallway for students in an elementary school and ended up winning the competition category nationally. This made my passion for education even stronger. I applied to become a national officer and am currently serving as the national student vice president of communications.
The biggest reason I want to be a teacher is because no matter what age of people you are working with, you will always be able to impact them in some way. We are shaping the future every day, and it makes me so excited to officially go into the field and advocate for solutions to the many problems current and future teachers are facing. I now spend most of my school day at a local school where I volunteer my time to tutor students in English language arts daily. I am more excited than ever to bring awareness to the issues in education and show the public all the good happening in our schools.
We do not need to be afraid of our future. We need to cultivate it.
