From Teacher to Writer

For the past few years I worked as a high school Intervention Specialist, which is the term Ohio uses for Special Education Teachers. I loved working with my students and I loved being a positive influence on their lives, but I did not enjoy standing in front of them and teaching them how to calculate the area of a triangle. I realized I spent more time speaking to them about the importance of advocating for themselves and taking charge of their education than I did actually teaching them how to use a past participle correctly.

I was starting to become more stressed out trying to find ways to help my students grow in socioemotional ways, instead of writing lesson plans to teach them. This discord within myself was growing each day. Eventually I had to take an internal look at myself and figure out what it is I wanted to do.

When I first started college, teaching was far from my future plans. My mother is a teacher and I wanted nothing to do with teaching. I knew I loved to write, and for as long as I can remember, writing has brought me comfort and allowed me to escape when I needed to the most. Writing was my passion and since being an English major did not entice me, I went into journalism. Being a reporter was one of the highlights of my time in college, as it was exciting and I had a lot of opportunities to do cool things.

I wanted to be just like Anderson Cooper and just like my idol Tina Fey. Tina Fey went from being behind the camera as a writer, to being an icon and a very recognizable household name.Although I have no intention of becoming an actress like Tina Fey, I do aspire to have that level of writing.

For that reason, along with many other reasons, I determined that I couldn’t have teaching be apart of my life anymore in that capacity. I am a lifelong educator, but not as a classroom teacher. Writing is my passion and the thing that makes me feel alive. Without writing, I felt lost and didn’t have a way to express my emotions in a healthy way and work through things I needed to work through.

Now that I am focusing more on my writing, many different facets of my life have improved. I want to begin sharing more of the things that help me with others out there in whatever method I can.

Although I’m not a classroom teacher and not using my college degree (that I’m paying for), I am far more happy and enjoying life much more.