Ever since I could remember I have always wanted to be a teacher. I would play school with my friends and I would even play with imaginary students in my bedroom by myself. Before college I played around with the idea of marine biology but I was too scared to get in the water and touch all those things in the ocean. I also thought about being a pediatric nurse but I wasn’t good in math so that was a no go either. And so here I was, September 2006, headed off to college to pursue my childhood dream of becoming a teacher. It is now January 2014 and I have yet to put my degree to use, at least in America that is…
Don’t get me wrong I really gained a lot academically and gained some of the most amazing friends away at school, but I ended my college years defeated and discouraged and my dream of becoming a teacher was gone. It didn’t matter how much I prepared for my peer teachings, but it was never good enough for my professors, I was ALWAYS average in their eyes. It was second semester of my senior year I was called to the deans office and she was asking me what my plans were for the semester and I told her it was to do my internship and become a teacher, I mean after all it was what the last 4 years of my life was working towards. Anyways, she said to me you have to get an A or a B for your internship in order to graduate on time and I said okayyyy…she recommended to me that I not do my internship and just take classes to get my Interdisciplinary Studies with emphasis in Education degree because she didn’t want to see me have to come back for another semester. So she basically told me I couldn’t do it and I wasn’t good enough. After that I had no desire to become a teacher. I had struggled so much to please them and it still was pointless.
What God has taught me in this first month here in South Africa is that those 5 years in college did not go to waste. I am using what I learned in my education classes and I am thankful I have that preparation. It doesn’t matter what man thinks it matters what He thinks and that I should focus on pleasing Him only. I may not have been good for my professors, but I AM good enough for Jesus. My teaching degree has been put to use already to a class of 6th graders. Me and my partner Jaime have taught them all 50 states by song (in alphabetical order), the Pledge of Allegiance, and have given them facts on all the states. We’ve even gotten into discussions on values and how important it is to stay away from bad influences. Yeah it may not be totally what a teacher does but it’s a start. It melts my heart when we would be walking around town or out doing street ministry and my 6th graders run up and give me a hug or yell my name from across the street. I’m making a difference and God is using me exactly where He needs me. So discouragement and defeat are gone because with God all things are possible!
