By senior year, you’re expected to know what you want to do with your life. I’m 18 years old, which is about 21 percent  of my current life expectancy (apparently they have calculators for that), which means I have to know now what I plan on doing until I’m 67 (my calculated retirement age – thanks socialsecurity.gov).

Most high school seniors are anxiously awaiting graduation, knowing they’ll never step foot in a high school again for anything other than to visit old teachers. Instead, I sit in English every day feeling a little strange, knowing I’ll be spending a majority of the rest of my life in various English classes. This fall I’ll be going to BYUi, majoring in English Education.

My decision to pursue a career in education has been highly influenced by teachers I’ve known through the years and as a senior I’ve found myself thinking back on their influence a lot.

My aunt was probably the most influential on this decision. She’s a first grade teacher in Washington where I lived through most of my childhood. I look up to her and respect her a lot and consider her one of my best friends, so I know wanting to be a teacher in part is also me wanting to be more like her.

Mrs. Chase was my 3rd grade teacher at Lake Wilderness Elementary school back in Washington, and she’s the first teacher that I can remember who really believed in me. In the Tahoma District, all Discovery (Gate 10) 3rd and 4th graders are put together in one class. If you’ve ever known a gifted elementary schooler, you could imagine how terrifying this would be for a teacher.

Before I was transferred to the Discovery program, my teachers told my parents that I wasn’t a good candidate for Discovery. I was quiet and kept to myself a lot, and would rush through my work so I could read on my own. When I started 3rd grade with Mrs. Chase, it felt like a complete 180 from what I was used to. She encouraged me to do what I enjoyed and I made friends quickly and easily with the other Discovery kids. I’m sure I was a hard student that year based on my most vivid memories- I consistently lost my work after doing it sometimes as many as 3 times, and would be forced to stay inside for recess. It wasn’t much of a punishment, recess was my least favorite part of the day, so I would stay in the classroom and feed our science project (growing mealworms) to our class hedgehog. To try to make me work, Mrs. Chase would tell me I wasn’t allowed to leave my chair until my work was done. I still refused to work, so I would hold onto my chair and scoot-walk out of the classroom with it. In spite of how difficult of a child I was, Mrs. Chase never yelled at me or made me feel like a bad person or student. She instilled in my 9 year old self a real love of learning, and helped me believe that I could do it.

Mrs. Noack was my 4th grade homeroom teacher when I moved to Hart. I remember her being young and energetic, and really excited about what she taught. She was the reading teacher, which meant I didn’t actually ever attend her class, instead I went to the GT room for reading, but I still loved being in her room. It was decorated with large drawings of familiar book characters. One of the 4th grade moms would draw them for our class, and I remember being really excited every time she’d get a new one. I remember she was obsessed with Harry Potter, which helped encourage me to finish the series I had started in 1st grade and gotten bored with. I’m pretty sure she cried when someone from our class gave her four bookmarks designed with the house crests.

Coach Reeves was my 7th grade science teacher. I’d never been good at math or science, but that year I ended with a 103 average, because I’d do extra credit because I wanted her to like me. I’m not sure what exactly it was about Coach Reeves, but I remember her class being my favorite that year. Because I pushed myself so much in her class, I ended up in GT science the next year. Still not sure how that happened, because I’m actually terrible. I ended up switching out of GT when Chemistry came around.

Throughout high school, my english teachers have been my favorites. Freshman year Ms. Harrison wasn’t my favorite, but I loved her through the next 3 years. I’m the proud member of Ms. Harrison’s four year club, after having her classes for every year of high school. English 1, English 2, Humanities and now, Creative Writing. I’ve loved the atmosphere that has been created through my years in GT English, and a lot of that was rooted in KatHarr’s classes.

Mrs. Pabst is amazing. I learned more about life in my all girls AP Lang class than you’d ever expect to learn in an English class. Also, she makes really good waffles. We wrote a lot of essays in that class, and when I’d stray from the essay format, she didn’t immediately discount my work but understood that sometimes my brain arranged the ideas differently. Obviously I would usually need some direction because I would tend to not only stray from the format but also stray off topic, but I appreciated that she didn’t try to fit me into a box.

Mrs. Glorioso is one of the most passionate teachers I have ever met. I thought she was kidding when she said she cried every time she read Hamlet, but there I was in 7th period during the Hamlet unit, and she was crying. I’ve really loved AP Lit and Mrs. Glorioso this year. She’s not only passionate about what she teaches, but also about her students. She genuinely cares and shows interest in us.

I’m extremely grateful for the education experience I’ve had throughout my 12 years of public education, and as it comes to a close I’ve been practically forced to realize how much all of my teachers have done for me. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the influence of my educators, and I know I’m taking a piece of each of them with me into my future.