It's Not Just A Job

Throughout my college experiences so far, I have heard the following phrases one too many times: "I'm only going into this major for the money" or "This is not what I want to do, but at least I'll be able to find a job after I graduate". Before my senior year of high school, I was set on becoming a pediatrician then move onto socializing in oncology. I was also supposed to leave Guam and attend Pacific Union College up in Angwin, California (it's near Napa Valley) and major in Biology on a pre-med track. Then, I was going to try and get into the Loma Linda University for med-school. That was my plan. I had the ball rolling in the direction I thought was what I wanted.

Then, a couple months before graduation, I decided that becoming a doctor was not what I wanted to do. I remember making this decision like it was yesterday. I was shadowing a pediatrician at the Guam Seventh-day Adventist Clinic and as she was taking a look at a sick 8-month old baby, I thought to myself, "Sure, this is fun now but what if I get bored? What if I get tired of looking at sick children? What if my job turns out to be one from 9 to 5 where I do absolutely nothing except prescribe medication after medication?" These thoughts literally haunted me for weeks. That was when I realized that becoming a doctor was certainly not my calling. I knew this to be true but I was not sure if switching out my life careers at that moment was a smart move. I had only a few months until graduation, I had already applied to several state-side schools. My mom and I were already planning on how we would work out my moving process and where I would go for the holidays if I could not come back home during the breaks. I was ready. Everything was practically done. But I was not happy with my decision.

This fear of being stuck in a career that did not make me happy or gave me some sort of life fulfillment scared the hell out of me! I wanted to actually accomplish something that I loved in my life. That's when I made the decision to go the totally opposite direction and work into becoming an elementary teacher. Throughout this entire process, I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to work with kids. I loved working with kids since I was a kid myself. Babies fascinated me. The joys of young kids amazed me. I already knew that I wanted to be a part of a child's life in helping them make good choices and teaching them things about things I was passionate about. That's when it all hit me. It was my calling to be a teacher.

Let's fast-forward to today. I am sure that being a teacher is what I want to do. There's no denying it. I don't want to do it for the money because let's be honest, there are a million and one things I could do that would bring in more money for me. All my life, the idea of being a teacher was always shut down by my family because they are all teachers. Before my dad died, he told me that he wanted to see me become a doctor. So when he passed, I thought that becoming a doctor would be the best way to honor him. But now that I am older, I've realized that becoming a teacher had been my dream all along. And teaching means so much more to me that it does for the next person. I want to be the kind of teacher that my students will go home to their parents and say that I made their day better. I want to be the kind of teacher that will show my students that learning is nothing to be afraid of. For me, teaching is not just a career but a dream. And now that I'm half-way through college, this dream just keeps getting bigger and bigger and is slowly becoming a reality.

Me (9mo.) & dad reading a book.