Being a Teacher

I visited Howe Caverns when I was five or six years old and I saw a book with a picture of a monster on it. The book was less than half a centimeter thick with a green border and I was fascinated. My mother purchased the book for me and I took it home to show my father. I sat with my father and we read the book together and I began learning all about dinosaurs. For about four years, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. My father took me on fossil hunts run through the state museum. My mother bought me every book she could find on dinosaurs. I amassed a bag of dinosaur figures, large and small. For about four years, my parents probably thought I would grow up to be a paleontologist.

I am not sure when that interest died out, perhaps when my friends started playing with Barbies or when I found Charmkins or She-RA. But when my students ask me why I wanted to be a teacher, I cannot say "I always wanted to be a teacher" because there were those four years when I dreamt of dinosaurs. However, I thoroughly remember enjoying telling everyone about dinosaurs. I knew all the different kinds and how big they were and what they ate. I loved telling my grandmother about them or talking about them at show and tell. So perhaps I really did always want to be a teacher.