My love for teaching and watching children grow started when I was just 7 years old. My first-grade classroom was covered in M&M everything and I was scared to talk or read in front of everyone—but the first day of class started with an amazing, confident woman walking in and commanding the attention from every single child who was in the room.

As school carried on throughout the year, we were reading and doing group work while getting our planners stamped with either green, yellow, or red. I found myself loving school, even though I wasn't the best at reading or spelling (and definitely not math). I always had the confidence that I was going to get better and that I was improving every day. You showed me that, even though I started off slow and I had a short attention span most of the time, I could still achieve exactly what I wanted to. They put me in all those special reading classes, told me that I was dyslexic, and even had thoughts about holding me back. You just kept telling me that I had to believe that I could read and it would come with time. I kept reading every single day when we would have our free time to color or draw. I would read and you would help me.

At the end of the school year, I was at a higher level in reading than any of my classmates, but the thing that I remember most is that I had a new found confidence. We had to tell all of the adults what we wanted to be when we grow up and my answer has never changed. I want to be a teacher and I will be a teacher. I have never wanted to be anything else because I know that teaching young minds is what I am meant to do. Children have the most beautiful and pure minds. Even just being in their presence brings me joy. I want my students to walk out of my classroom confident that they can and will achieve anything that they put their mind to.

Thank you for making me believe that I can do anything. Teaching is my dream. Now, I am an early childhood education major in my second year of college and things couldn't be going any better. So, thank you for that.