Why be a teacher? You get crappy pay, little respect and a ton of stress. The truth is, if you are becoming a teacher for yourself, you are in the wrong profession. I'm serious. Those who become teachers, should do so because they care about the students that they will teach and want to make a difference in their lives.

If you do not truly care about each one of your students and their well-being (this does not mean you have to be all their best friend or something like that) then you should not be in the classroom. So why am I becoming a teacher? What inspired me to tread this path? I'm glad you asked!

There are several things that played a part in why I'm on the track to be a teacher (and a high school one at that😉). It all really came into place and become known to me my senior year of high school. I pretty much had figured out early on in high school that I wanted to be a teacher (when applying to colleges I was going in as an elementary ed intent) but senior year is where the inspiration came through.

As pretty much everyone else, high school was rough for me. I was going through many things in my personal life and in my mental health during senior year especially. It being senior year, things were at a head and I was realizing just how close the end of my "childhood" was and how many big decisions I was going to have to make over the months and even years that followed. It all came to a halt whenever I would step into my A.P. Literature classroom.

All my worries, fears, and struggles could be left at the door for fifty minutes every day. I could be myself and could talk about things I actually love! (As most of you know, high school is often full of people wearing "masks" and not always feeling free to truly be themselves) Literature, poetry and so much more! I had spent a large portion of my years in school being taught at. This class was different.

This class was where I was enlightened and inspired. Sure he would teach us and we would learn, but he did so with such passion that made it feel like it was not just school but that it was a place where we talked about things we were passionate about. What do I mean by this?

Well, when Mr. McNally taught, he was passionate about what he taught. For instance, books like Brideshead Revisited, Frankenstein, The Aeneid, Inferno and so many more, made sense in a way I never could see in just simply reading them on my own. I can now go back and read these books on my own time and not only understand them but enjoy them! That is what teaching is all about!

Because if you are not passionate about what you're teaching, how can you expect your students to be? I saw how he changed minds when it came to these books and when it came to poetry and I knew that I wanted to one day create that magic for others. For the reasons I shared and so many more, I decided that I would go to school to do exactly that.

It is because of that amazing teacher and class, that I am now on the track to one day graduate and become a high school English teacher. Mr. McNally, if you are reading this, I just want to say thank you! Thank you for broadening the world of literature and teaching me that Brideshead is not just a good book, but one of the greatest works ever written that needs to be shared with the world! I am who I am today because of you, so thank you!