Those Who Can, Teach

Can someone know you better than you know yourself?

I spent a year in Europe when I was seventeen. It was an annus mirabilis. I grew up that year.

When I returned, my mother had enrolled me in the College of Education. I was livid. No way was I going to be a teacher - just a teacher.

What I really wanted to be was a psychologist. I was the kid in high school who helped everyone - male and female - with their problems. I saw that as my vocation.

Besides, what eighteen-year-old likes their mother making decisions for them?

Once I realized that my mother's scheme was inevitable, my plan was to take the first year of Education, then switch over to Arts for my second year. Thing is, there's a little thing called momentum.

By the time I finished first year, it seemed too much like work to switch over. Besides, after putting some research into it, I discovered that you don't get far in Psychology without your masters. I wasn't quite sure I was willing to invest seven years. I wanted to make money ASAP.

Alright, alright, Mother, I'll be a teacher - but I'm not going to like it!

In the fall of my fourth year, I became an intern teacher. I taught with a brilliant experienced teacher in a classroom of wonderful fourth graders. I was hooked! There wasn't a day I didn't come home with an interesting story to entertain whoever would listen.

No two days are ever the same when you work with children. This job never gets boring. In fact, I could use a little boring now and then.

I suppose my only complaint about the job has absolutely nothing to do with the kids; it's the homework. I remember a classmate of mine in college telling me that we were entering a profession in which we would have homework every night of our lives. I laughed it off - yeah, right! It's true though. I do take July off. But the homework starts up again in August, when I start preparing for the new school year.

Despite this, I am right where I was meant to be.

I still wonder, though - how did my mother know that, when I didn't?