I began my teaching career when I was only eight years old. Finally, my four-year-old sister was old enough to begin learning how to read and write. I intently began making hand-written worksheets for her to complete about my favorite novels, Charlotte's Web and Where the Red Fern Grows. Unfortunately, she was not a quick study and received failing grades on many of those assignments! Teaching is my calling.

I love #mindblown moments (those of us of a certain age might have long ago called those "light-bulb moments"). English, it turns out, is not everyone's favorite subject! Some students actually like math? I love when my enthusiasm for poetry or Shakespeare or writing essays transfers to a student and they say, "I never thought of it like that" or when they actually admit that English that year "wasn't that bad."

Like most teachers, I imagine, I started my career thinking I was teaching English. I eventually figured out that what I actually do is teach people. Young people who are smart and creative and funny and challenging. I love teaching because it has taught me grace. Not physically, unfortunately. But I try to instill in my students the concept that we are all human, we all make mistakes, and we all need to learn to apologize and forgive ourselves and others when we fall. While my students will tell you that I have taught them many important lessons about English, the most important lessons I have taught them are inevitably about life.