I Want to Be a Teacher.

I want to be a teacher. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a teacher. Sure, every little girl goes through that stage of wanting to be a ballerina, a princess, a veterinarian, or (in my case) Nancy Drew. However, throughout all of those stages, deep down, I have always had that desire to teach. As a young fifth grader, I decided to turn our playroom closet into my classroom. My dad even hung a giant whiteboard on the closet wall so that I could be just like a "real" teacher. And my poor younger brother Peyton, along with my four favorite stuffed animals, had to endure hours of spelling homework (I taught them my fifth grade spelling words).  As I go throughout my college semesters--I''m soon-to-be starting the last half of my sophomore year of college and time is going by as quickly as ever--I've found that sitting through my education courses can be so exciting. I can't wait to get in my classroom full of middle school students. Yes, I want to teach middle school. That age is both terrible and terrifying, but it can also be terrific. I can't wait to come up with lesson plans to actually make Language Arts a fun class. And I can't wait to maybe someday coach my own speech students.
However, with the recent events that went down in Connecticut, a new fear has been struck into me. What if that were to happen at the school in which I taught? Today as I was looking through the online news, I saw an article that was a little bit different from the articles I had seen over and over again. Instead of highlighting this terrible man who committed an act so evil that it shouldn't even be mentioned, the news was dedicated to the victims of the shooting. Not only were the victims mentioned, but also the heroes in the situation. There were several teachers mentioned who stayed calm on the outside during this horrifying situation and knew exactly what they needed to do to protect their students. I read about one teacher who hid her students in a supply closet right before the gunman entered the classroom. She told the man that her students were in the gym and then her life was taken from her. Gone. Just like that. Her students were all safe. And then there was the fearless principle who physically tried to stop this man and was killed in the process. It makes me wonder first off: would I be willing to sacrifice my own life for the lives of my students? I sure hope so. And secondly, it makes me think that the end is near. This year, there have been far too many dark and evil acts committed in our nation. There is so much hurt and pain in my heart thinking about all of the suffering caused by evil that is in our world today. Am I ready for Christ to come back? I sure am. But as my boyfriend, Hayden says, "The end is near, but it can't be too near yet, because so many more need to hear." So many more lives need to be won to Christ. As a Christ follower, I can unashamedly say that I am ready to die. I would hope that I would be willing to die if it was during a normal day in my classroom, or if I were to die a martyr's death for my faith. I am ready for the second coming of my Savior. I know that the battle has been won already. But there are so many more that need to hear.
So...I want to be a teacher. And more than that, I want to be a teacher of Christ's love through my actions and words. Because there are so many more that need to hear.