Recently, while I was on vacation I was listening to a group of middle-aged women complaining about someone they know getting a tattoo. The conversation got me thinking about something someone said to me a few months before that about my tattoos.

"Oh... you have tattoos. Didn't you say you were going to be a teacher? Don't you think that you should consider something else?"

No. No, I do not think I should consider doing something else. I have wanted to be a teacher my entire life. I am wonderful with children. I work hard at learning all of the new advances that I need to learn in order to become a teacher. I am going to be good at my career. My career does not discriminate against me because of something so minuscule. Instead, it will allow me to show that I am more than just what you happen to see on the outside.

The fact that I have tattoos does not and will not have any input in any of that. A child will not learn less from me because I got a tattoo in remembrance of my grandmother. They are still going to learn how to write essays, and add fractions. They will still learn how to interact with their peers and how to treat each other the way they want to be treated. (Something you clearly missed) Tattoos are not bad just because you would not get one.

Tattoos are not something awful that defines me as an awful person. They are something that I did because I wanted to do. I like them. I think they are beautiful. I am sorry that you do not, but I am not any less of a person because of them.

I am going to change the lives of hundreds of students. I am going to become something great. I am going to do it all with my tattoos.