I have had my fair share of good and bad teachers, just as everyone has. However, when I decided to pursue it as a career choice I began to pay more attention to my teachers and reflected on those that I previously had. Teaching wasn't just a profession, was one of the realizations that I had discovered, it was a type of art. A dance even. To balance classrooms of kids, personal relationships with students and their own lives, it all seemed insurmountable. Only once I got into my senior year of high school did I start to understand how they did it, and that I wanted to do the exact same thing. These teachers didn't just push me in an academic scene, but also in a life sense. They have inspired not just what I want to do but in who I want to become in life.

Maybe it was the long hours trying to figure out Calculus or the days slaving away in my government textbook for the weekend before my AP government exam, but through these teachers, I learned to persevere. It was the nights after softball games going to a cram session at school hosted by my teacher that taught me that putting in the extra effort for yourself and for others was important. Helping other people and inspiring them to be their best selves isn't just present in teachers and therapists. Being someone who is genuinely good is something that my teachers taught me outside the classroom. And I thank them for that.

I thank all of my teachers that have helped me become the person I am today, inside and outside of the classroom. Because the skills that teachers bestow on you are not reserved only for essays or equations, they're skills you apply to job applications and Master's theses. These are the skills that can carry you through life even if it doesn't entail any more classrooms or homework. Teachers help you grow as people and as adults, even if you don't like the critical analysis homework or the four pages of derivatives, just understand that you might not just be learning something for a test.

To all of my teachers and professors, thank you and good luck. Because I will see you on the playing field.