This morning I got up, got dressed, made my coffee, and headed to my first class of the semester. And it hit me: One day I will get up, get dressed, make my coffee and head to my first class. But this time I will unlock the classroom with my own key, see my name written on the board, sit at the big desk and patiently await the arrival of my students.

Someday I will be picking out my classroom decorations instead of picking out my school supplies. I will be writing syllabi instead of reading them. I will be the one grading, instead of the one being graded. I will be able to live my passions; I will be finally be able to welcome my students to their new class. Eventually my first days will look different, but it will always hold the hope that every new beginning holds.

My hope for my future students is that they will be able to learn from me as much as I already know I will learn from them. I hope that they will not only learn about the Great American novels, how to write a thesis statement and all about bibliographies, but they will also learn to believe in themselves. They will know that high school isn’t the best four years of their lives, but they can be some of the most important ones. If they so choose.

My hope for myself is that I will be able to teach with grace. That I will be equipped not only with the knowledge to be a good teacher, but also with the compassion required to be a caring influence in someone’s life. I hope that I will maybe instill a little bit of love for literature in them, but more importantly I hope that I am able to instill in them love for themselves, and a love for life. Even though I want to spend the rest of my life in a classroom, I know that there is more to the world than those four walls. But within those four walls, great things can happen, things that will prepare you for when you are no longer tucked away in the comfort of that cube.

I will be teaching doctors and lawyers, future mothers and fathers. The heroes of our future will be in my classroom. So as my first day of school comes to an end, I have to remember that this first is nowhere near my most important one. My most important day will be when those world changers walk into my classroom. I have the power to mold the future, one student at a time.

Even though the rest of my life will be filled with first day jitters, they will also be filled with overwhelming excitement. No matter how big I think each first day is, nothing will compare to the first day that starts off the rest of my life. So here’s to the first of many.