When I take a look back on my life, as a college senior, I realize that most of my life (well, basically all of it) has involved some type of school. When I was 4 and started my first preschool, I couldn't have possibly realized that was going to be the beginning of 17 years of classes, tests, diplomas, etc. I look back now, and it's funny because I realize that there were really three groups of people who shaped my life whereas I always thought there were only two: my family, my friends, and my teachers.

I guess I was lucky, because about 99 percent of the teachers I had throughout elementary, middle, and high school were incredible people. They cared about us as individuals more than they worried about our test scores. These people wanted to teach us–not only what the state required for our education, but they wanted to teach us about life and prepare us for what we were soon to face in the 'real world.'

I'll never forget my high school years because of that. Those years were full of laughs, life lessons, and learning. My sophomore year, I had an American Government teacher who spent thirty minutes of class stressing the importance of making wise choices on prom night–now, years later I still refer to many of his "lectures" and I'm thankful for them all the more. That same year, I had an English teacher who fostered my love for writing. Our weekly journals taught me to express myself through writing, and to this day I continue to write and read with a passion. My senior year, my Anatomy teacher spent the last day of class passing out pictures she, herself, had taken of all of us throughout the year. She read us the Dr. Suess book "Oh, The Places You'll Go", and brought the whole class to tears, and reminded us that we could do anything we set our minds to. These are just three of the many many people who influenced my life, and the lives of my classmates through some of the most trying times of our lives.

Now, I'm a senior in college, and I, myself, am a teacher. I have a class full of beautiful one-year-olds who I am lucky enough to influence the same way that my own teachers influenced me. I know now that being a teacher isn't as easy as I had always imagined. Lesson plans, art projects, and even meal times are a struggle on some days, but in the end, I know that it is worth it.

So, to the parents of these beautiful children I get to spend my days with, I thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your child's life. Thank you for letting me love them, wipe their tears away, make them laugh, and teach them.

Even though they probably won't remember me in 17 years, I will remember them. I've learned that being a teacher means not only teaching your students but learning from them. I learn from those children every day and it makes me a better person and teacher because of it.