When I Grow Up...

Whenever anyone asks me "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" I usually get pretty tired once I've finished responding. Because the list is pretty long, people.

Barbie (yes, I wanted to be THE Barbie doll. Pretty ambitious for a little girl, if I do say so myself.)
Artist
Elementary school teacher
Writer
Singer
Fashion designer 
Journalist
Interior designer
Archaeologist
Anthropologist
and then for a while I had no freaking clue what I wanted to be. 

I think I wanted to be an artist mostly because of my Papa, who worked for Disney for a long time. He would always draw Disney characters on homemade birthday cards for us, and sometimes he'd sit down with me and show me step by step how to draw Mickey Mouse or Donald or whoever. And I thought it was the coolest thing EVER. Eventually I discovered that I have no talent when it comes to drawing, unless you count stick figures...so that dream ended.

I think every child, especially girls, want to be a teacher at some point in their lives. I would set up stuffed animals or make my little sister pretend to be my student, and give them pretend homework and tests and whatnot.

A writer. For as long as I can remember I've really loved writing, and I used to get in trouble for it during school. I would rush through my work so that I had some free time before we moved on to another activity. And I would sit there and either read a book, or start writing my own story. I wrote my first "full book" when I was around eleven or twelve, and all I remember about it was that it was set in colonial times (a time period I was obsessed with for quite a while). I don't know what ever happened to it, though. What a shame.

Fashion designer: this was my dream from sixth grade until early high school, when I finally discovered that I just don't have the right kind of creativity to design clothing, nor the patience for sewing something like clothing. 

Journalist: my senior year of high school I took a journalism class and got to write articles that were put on our school's newspaper website, and I had a lot of fun with it. But the rushing of deadlines and stress associated with that just wasn't for me.

Archaeologist: I thought this was SUCH a cool job! You got to solve historical mysteries and all that jazz, and find old artifacts and learn about ancient civilizations. But once I realized that I would have to be digging through dirt all day, I decided that just wasn't a good idea for me. I'm not such a big fan of dirt.

Anthropologist: I started becoming obsessed with the TV show Bones at the end of high school, and took an anthropology class one of my first semesters at community college. I don't know if it was the professor I had or the actual work, but the class BORED ME TO DEATH. So, while I am still in love with Bones, that dream just isn't realistic.

For about a year and a half of my community college time, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I took a lot of psychology classes which I found really interesting, but couldn't see myself going into any kind of fields associated with a psychology degree.

I ended up getting 2 degrees from my community college; one in Social and Behavioral Sciences and one in Humanities. I was planning on going to BYU-Idaho and just getting a good old plain English degree, when I finally figured out what I wanted to do: teach. But specifically, high school English. Here's my explanation from my teaching website for why I have decided to become a teacher:

"For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with school. As a child in elementary school I was often reprimanded for rushing through assignments and doing them improperly, writing my own stories when I should be doing a math assignment, or simply not paying attention. At parent-teacher conferences, my mom was always told that I was “very smart, but she just does not try hard enough”. I was dubbed a slacker; a girl who does not care about her education, and who never will. The only place in school where I excelled was English. Grammar concepts were easy for me to pick up, and essays or research papers were a breeze. I managed to graduate high school, with the help of supportive teachers and patient parents who would pay for tutors or pick me up after school late in the evening if I stayed for help.

"Two years after I graduated high school, my mom started receiving promptings to have me tested for a learning disability. After four months of meeting with a psychologist, intelligence tests, and answering literally hundreds of questions on my strengths and weaknesses in learning, I was diagnosed with ADD. Through help from my doctor and beginning to research my disability to better understand it, I began seeing a change in how I viewed myself and my abilities, and education as a whole. Over a period of one year, I went from a 2.6 GPA to achieving a perfect 4.0 my final semester of community college, and I decided to pursue a career in teaching.

"Through those years struggling to learn and keep up with my classmates, not once did a teacher suggest that I had a learning disability, or say anything regarding my abilities--teachers told my parents and I that I lacked the proper motivation, or even simply saying that I was stupid or incapable. Most teachers lack a knowledge or understand of learning disabilities; signs to watch for in their students, things to be aware of, tips for helping them to succeed, or ways to make the classroom environment one that they can learn in more easily. Because of the experiences I've had struggling through school, I know that there are hundreds and even thousands of other students experiencing the same difficulties. No one should ever have to feel too stupid to learn, and I plan on changing that."

I think another big reason why teaching is so appealing to me is because I want to be a mom sometime in the future. I'd like to be able to stay home with my kids when they're young, but I don't think I want to be a stay at home mom for forever. Having my teaching degree would enable me to go back to work, but still be home in the evenings and early mornings to help take care of kids.

I still have a bit longer before I finish my degree and do a semester of student teaching, but this is the longest I've stuck with working towards a specific educational goal and I know I won't be changing my mind again!