Self Growth from 18 to 40: Comparing Your Life to Others Your Age

As a child, I always thought about becoming a teacher. I looked up to many of the teachers that I had and wanted to be just like them. The teachers I most enjoyed seemed to have one thing in common: They told their students that because we live in America, we could be anything we wanted to be. And I believed them. They were so positive!

My 7^th grade Social Studies teacher was very proud of the fact that he graduated from "RIC", and often encouraged me to go there. He wore a large school ring on his hand and that intrigued me. He was relatively young at the time and boasted that Rhode Island Teacher's College was the best place to go. When I was 19, Mr. Henderson stopped by to visit me and my roommate, who had also been a student in his class. He specifically wanted to know why we were not in college yet. I always considered this to be above and beyond his call of duty and was personally affected by his enthusiasm to consider our best interests. That was the beginning of my journey to attend Rhode Island College. It has taken me 14 years to decide on the "perfect" major, however.

Clearly, after high school I got side tracked. I was plagued by the decision of choosing what I wanted to be. I have searched for "the perfect" thing to do. By age 26 I had already attended several schools that had my personal interests at heart. I attended cosmetology school, secretarial school, and finally a community college. There I met several professors who guided me with the notion that if I was so adamant on teaching and could not decide exactly what to teach that I could teach what I know.

By age 30 and many personal hurdles I knew a lot more things about life and have tried to integrate it into making a career decision. At Katharine Gibbs I learned discipline. At CCRI, where I received an AA in social work, I learned how to apply that discipline. That discipline led to a job at a local Head Start agency as a combination preschool teacher and family worker. At Head Start, I learned to apply a variety of skills, and learned by observing other teachers about the vast array of skill that goes into the art of teaching.