Who Am I?

From the moment that I was old enough for people to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would barely have the chance to reply before the person would smile knowingly at me and say “I bet you are going to be a teacher just like your Mom.” As a result, I spent the majority of my middle and high school years trying to find a different career path simply in spite of those who thought they knew me better than I knew myself. However, in the end I could not avoid the destiny that was me going into the field of education.

I am from the small, rural town of Brinkley, Arkansas. The majority of our (barely) two thousand citizens either spend their days working in the rice and cotton fields or laboring in a menial job such as one of our gas stations or fast food restaurants. Brinkley is a small town with minimal career opportunities; there is a high population of low income households and only a small percentage of the adults living in Brinkley have received a college and/or technical degree. The greater part of the students that I started kindergarten with and twelve years later graduated from high school with did not care about school. They did not care what kind of grades they made, and many of their parents did not even seem to care if their child came to school. Growing up in this kind of environment made me determined to learn as much as I possibly could so that I could escape the confines of small town life. I did not want my future children to grow up in a similar environment in which they felt isolated because they wanted to come to school and learn.

The strong passion to learn that I possessed as a child was instilled in me by my mom. She was a math teacher at Brinkley High School until she retired last year, and she was my math teacher from the eighth grade until the twelfth grade. My mom was one of the best teachers that I had in high school (although I might be slightly biased) not only because of her competence in math, but also because of the way that she connected with her students. My classmates were not used to having anyone truly care what their ACT score was, whether or not they passed a class, or how many times they were written up each semester. I witnessed classmates who had been troublemakers and careless about their schoolwork for years transform into hardworking and determined students in my mom’s classroom. If I can someday impact and relate to my students the way that my mom did, then I will have achieved my goal as an educator.

In addition to my mom, my absolute favorite teacher was my agriculture advisor, Mr. Crangle. When I entered his classroom in the eighth grade I was a shy, introverted middle schooler with no interest in pursuing agriculture. Yet five short years later Mr. Crangle inspired within me a passion for agriculture and leadership so strong that the fourteen thousand FFA (Future Farmers of America) members in Arkansas elected me as their 2014-2015 Arkansas FFA State Secretary. Mr. Crangle’s dedication to his students’ interests and his drive to help each of them achieve their goals continues to astound me today. It was the complete change in personality that Mr. Crangle initiated within myself that makes me admire him as an educator; I hope to have the drastic effect on just one student’s life that he has had on countless students.

As a result of the town in which I grew up and the influence of my mom and Mr. Crangle, I now proudly tell anyone who will listen that when I grow up I will be an educator. Without these circumstances and individuals I have no idea who I would be today or who my high school classmates and innumerable others would be either. I am honored to have the opportunity to shape the way that students think about English, and excited to help them grow academically, socially, and individually.