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So, since I am settled into school (for the most part...I just finished hanging my jeans up yesterday. I've never hung jeans up before in my life) and I'm taking all these education classes, I thought I'd share with you all why I'm going to be a teacher.
I'm not really sure of where to start with this one, so I'll just wing it. In high school, I took speech the spring of my senior year, so my class got to organize the annual Dr. Seuss Day celebration. High schoolers were paired up with elementary kids so that they could help them with the various activities my classmates and I had planned for the day. I can't remember all of them, but I think they read aloud to each other, decorated cookies, and made "slime". I got up in front of one class and explained how were going to make this goopy green stuff. Afterwards, three faculty members - who I respect immensely - walked up to me (together) and told me that I needed to be a teacher when I grew up, that I was a natural at the front of the classroom.
I thought to myself, "NO WAY. School has never been for me; why would I want to spend the rest of my life in a classroom? Teachers don't make any money! I'm going to be a dental hygienist; they practically make their own hours and are compensated well for it!"
Side note: I've probably already shared this with you, but, I came home from my first semester of college with a D in Dental Anatomy and my dad looked at me and said, "Maybe you shouldn't be a dental hygienist."
So, anyways. After the EPIC (and you know it was EPIC because I never use the word EPIC, ever) dental hygiene fail, I went through three more semesters at The Tech in Moorhead, just taking generals. Still not really sure what I was doing, Haley and I came to UMC and spent the day together checking things out. I totally admit it, it was love at first sight for me. I always kind of thought Crookston was a janky town, so I was assuming the campus would be sketchy as well. Obviously it is not! Still, that May, I was panicking about what I was doing, so I talked to my parents and asked if I could live at home for a year and work. They agreed, and I talked to Rachelle about getting mostly full-time employment at the Bou starting in the middle of August. I still worked at the pool that summer in Hallock, however.
I remember the moment I knew I wanted to be a teacher so insanely clearly that it's almost scary to me. I was teaching a level two little lady, with long, curly red hair and these adorable purple-tinted goggles, and I had an epiphany. One thing you should know about swimming lesson teachers - possibly the hardest thing to teach a kid to do is back float. It's tough for them to keep their little heads back and their bellies pushed up to the sky just right, no matter what the teacher does to explain it to them. The day that little girl landed her back float was all-around exciting; exciting for her because she learned how to do it without me supporting her back for her, and exciting for me because I had helped her do it.
The greatest reward from that whole job was not the paycheck I got every two weeks. It wasn't the great tan or being done by 9 every night or not having to be there til 9 every morning. It was that moment that your young swimming student achieved a new skill, and that you helped him or her get there. To watch their little faces light up because they are so excited and proud of themselves - THAT is the greatest reward. I am tearing up remembering that moment; I remember thinking, "If I can teach a little one to do a back float, I can teach a little one to read, too."
And now, in just a few short semesters (they really are going to fly by, aren't they?) I'm going to be able to experience that exciting, glorious, smile-so-big-your-face-is-about-to-split-in-two feeling every. single. day. And, I simply can't wait.
:)
Love,
Kalli
