I'm A Big Kid Now

I have spent the majority of my life knowing what I would do, "when I grew up." Of course, 'knowing that' is not the same thing as 'doing that.'  Countless people told me that I would be a great teacher and that I should really think about becoming one. At first, I would shrug at them and agree, but after a while, it started to irritate me that so many people thought they knew what I would do with my life. So, naturally, I began to rebel at that notion.

For a while.

I left my hometown six years ago to attend a university that was as far away from there as I could get while still in the state of Kansas. I have many reasons for doing this, but the main reason is that I wanted to distance myself from what I had always known. I wanted to find what I was really supposed to do without being forced to listen to what other people wanted me to do.

I wanted to explore my options.

And explore I did. Everyone says that the first two years in college are worthless. You only take classes that are general requirements, which is true, but I don't think they are worthless. I enrolled in a wide variety of classes that opened my mind to new possibilities and taught me things that I never would have learned in any other setting. I can make a weapon from beating two rocks together like a caveman, and even tell you what type of rocks work best; I can tell you myths and legends of a indigenous Asian tribe; I can even balance a ledger.

All of these things made me realize what I would become.

The interesting thing about education is that it is a literal melting pot of people and cultures united for a common goal. Yeah, okay, that sounded like a super hero line. But in all honesty, to be a teacher, one must have an understanding of many aspect of life and learning, not just the piece that you are charged to teach. As I looked at the document to declare my major, I thought about all my classes, and a majority were literature and cultural classes. I stared at the transcript for a moment and a thought occurred to me.

Ah hell, Chesney. You did just what they said you would.

Needless to say, I declared to be a teacher. I thought about it for a long time, and I still wondered if I was just doing it because everyone told me that I would. But after all these years studying, I realized that I was wrong to think that. I love education. Clearly, I have been in school for 19 years. But in all honesty, becoming a teacher has been one of the greatest joys I have found in my life. I have spent six years learning and training to become something I spent my whole life waiting for. So it was a surreal moment when I read an email from a professor congratulating me on finishing and wishing me the best of luck in the future.

I laughed after reading it.

I couldn't believe that I had made it this far.

Good lord. They're actually going to let me teach.