In order to pursue my passion for learning, I chose to study philosophy during my time at Colorado College. Philosophy gave me the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in the wide variety of courses that made up my liberal arts education. Upon graduating, I used those skills to further pursue another passion of mine, rock climbing. I worked as a climbing guide, bringing people from all walks of life into my world and out of their comfort zones. I learned how to gently push people past their fears. I learned how to use a combination of encouragement and technical knowledge to help people reach their goals. I learned how to read people and find the roots of their struggles. Through this, I could discover the best way to approach each individual and create a plan of action that worked best for their unique needs. Through all of this, I learned of my passion for teaching. I went on to start tutoring students and combined both the critical thinking skills and technical knowledge from my degree in philosophy with the teaching skills that I learned from guiding climbing. I worked with students in a variety of subjects from math, to history, to writing. In every subject, I was able to help lead my students into developing their own critical thinking skills. I also encountered some of the same fear that I saw from people 100 feet up a rock face. I used my guiding experience to help one student overcome what had become a debilitating and illogical fear of math in order for her to pass a college placement test (which she had failed many times previously) so that she could go on to pursue her own passion of fashion design. Through all of my experiences, I have continued to pursue my passion for learning, and I hope to cultivate a similar passion in each of my students.