Growing up, whether we liked our teachers or not, going to school for many children is a large part of their lives. Every year, even into college, we always had that one instructor that never clicked with us whether that was a lack of motivation on our end or a lack of care on the other. Teachers are not perfect. However, they still are a huge part of our lives and how we see the world. For that and in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I want to say thank you for helping me grow into the person I am today.

To my eighth grade English teacher who told me I should write for a magazine one day, thank you for seeing my potential to write and encouraging me to be creative my ideas from the start. To my AP literature teacher senior year in high school, thank you for your guidance and exposure to books I enjoyed and did not enjoy. And to my high school music teachers, thank you for helping me develop real-life skills that helped me develop foundational leadership skills.

Now, like many of us, we always had those subjects we just never understood or could not care less about. For me, that was generally math. I'm convinced I was just exposed to the wrong math as I later enjoyed my statistics courses in college. Either way, thank you to my math teachers for showing me what I did not want to do in college. Thank you for saving me more pain and agony in college when I realized how much I did not enjoy pre-calc or geometry. Thank you to my science teachers for helping me learn that while I enjoyed going to class and learning about science, I was not cut out for a career in science nor did I want to continue studying science. You helped me learn that you can have an interest in a subject but not fully invest in a career in any particular topic. After all, I think we can appreciate how cool NASA's social media really is. Thank you to my teachers before college for helping me learn what I did not want to study, wanted to learn more about, and set me on a foundation that would still be shook going into college.

Now to my college instructors at UC. Lord knows I had at least one class a semester that I probably got testy or annoying, but that could have been the fact I always had to bring my lunch with me to class. Either way, thank you to those who sat down with me, helped me learn outside of classroom hours, and especially thank you to those who encouraged me to pursue more school.

Of course, I want to thank the professors whose class I really did care much about and to instructors who perhaps shared some tough love. Thanks to those, I realized during college what careers I did not want to pursue and that's one of the best things about college in my opinion. I had friends who switched majors or degree plans halfway through their four or five years, and seeing how happy they were inspired me.

Either way, thank you to my professors in both of my majors especially for helping me realize what aspects I enjoyed and did not enjoy in my program. Thank you for helping me figure out that I did not want to work in a daily publication or in hard news. Thank you for helping me gain valuable experience within research, presentations, public speaking, internships, and leadership opportunities. Without the different directions and courses I took, I would probably still be naive and lost in the field.

And lastly, I want to thank my friends and family who are current teachers or student teaching. Because of your patience, your passion, and your kindness with students of all ages from Pre-K to 12th grade, you help shape and develop young minds and help them in their early stages of life. No matter what public opinion may say, you deserve much more respect and recognition for all of your hard work and resources to create a safe educational environment.

In the end, without teachers or professors in my life, I'm not sure where I would be today. Without your support and tough conversations, I would not be where I am today nor would I feel this optimistic about my future. I aspire to give back anyway that I can some day. Until then, keep on educating our future leaders, doctors, lawyers, philosophers, managers, and overall future generations. Continue to help them tap into their strengths and that it's okay to be different like you did with me. Thank you for all that you do and continue to do each and every day.