My goal is to be a high school English teacher. I have always loved reading, writing, and helping others, but teaching has not always seemed like such an obvious career choice. For a long time, I did not allow myself to consider majoring in something as unemployable as English and becoming something as “average” as a high school teacher.

I attribute my change of heart to several factors. During my junior year of high school, I enrolled in AP English Language. I remember my first essay for that class. My teacher wrote that it was “far above the class average.” He complimented my voice — I didn’t even know I had one. I had never pursued writing because I never had any reason to believe I was any good. In an instant, that all changed. One day, my teacher and I were talking before class and he said, “You know you could be a writer — like, actually be one. That’s how good you are.” I blushed and changed the subject, but I didn’t forget the conversation. Maybe majoring in English wasn’t such a far-fetched idea.

The next year, I interned for that same class. I helped my teacher run the class, grading and workshopping students' writing, to great fulfillment. Yet once I got accepted to college, I avoided the path of English majors and teaching like the plague. I felt pressure to be “impressive,” and teaching was not.

I had a tough time adjusting to college, and my lack of direction in regards to my major exacerbated that. I found a lot of joy in my job as an ACT tutor. I worked with my two students every Saturday for three months, providing them with encouragement and test-taking strategies. It was beyond rewarding.

After several months, I had tried numerous majors, and was miserable in all of them. In contrast, I loved my literature classes. I went to office hours and revised my essays until they were stellar. I had a “come-to-Jesus moment.” Being the best, most passionate English major, with a less robust job market, is a thousand times preferable to being a mediocre, dispassionate anything else.

Once I was happily an English major, I considered all my experiences. I realized the smartest people I know, whom I respect the most, are my high school teachers. I don’t look down on them, so I decided not to look down on myself. Teaching was a career path that would make me happy, as my time as an intern and tutor proved to me. It was achievable; I have never had any notions about being a starving artist. Consider my passion for running, and the opportunities high school teaching allows for coaching, and it all came together in a way I couldn’t ignore.

I am majoring in English and will earn a Master’s in Secondary Education after graduation. I am working very hard as an undergraduate, and I have researched graduate schools with one-year teacher licensure programs and their prerequisites. I cannot rely on “following my passions.” Instead, I listen to my passions and work hard at excelling in them and developing skills. I am resourceful and eager to form relationships. I have set my mind to succeeding at my goal, and I know I will achieve it.