A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to become an educator. I was very young, nervous, and I did not feel like I had all of the good qualities to support and educate young individuals. However, I took the job offer which has changed my life in many ways, and created the hard working woman I am today…

The first couple of months and the first year was the most challenging. It was challenging because I pushed myself to be something that I wasn’t. For instance, I wanted to be a very organized, strict, and determined teacher. I worked after class hours and I even took my work home. As a young educator, I felt like I had to work twice as hard to prove that my age did not depict my work ethic. After that first year, I made a promise to myself, to be myself, put my students first, and to make every learning experience fun.

I stated to put my students first because as an educator there are always different opinions and changes to the educational system which causes educators to lose their ideal plan that they had for their classroom. I told myself that in every situation I would put my students first and make any changes that would benefit them.

I also stated that I was a strict teacher, which I changed because I am not a strict person. I also stated that I wanted to be very organized, which is one of the best qualities to have; however, after I have changed my intake of what kind of teacher I wanted to be, it made everything fall into place.

I think I put a lot of pressure on myself in the past because I also wanted to be a good role model for my students, but part of being a good role model is being honest with yourself and knowing that your actions may affect others. I also wanted to be a leader to inspire people to better themselves. It is interesting that I say that those jobs title are not what I wanted, but its quite ironic because these are the qualities my students, coworkers, and peers view me as.

I tell my students not to look up to me and to be better than me. I say this because I do not want them to lose themselves. I tell them if they want to be like a particular person, try to be 10x times better and smarter, while still being their unique self.

I am not mentor, or leader, however, I am an impactor. I impact my student lives which challenges and inspire them to do more, and to impact others.