Teacher?

I've had some time on my hands and I've been thinking...

When you think about what you want to be like when you grow up it seems so distant. "One day" or "later" seemed to drive the thoughts right out of my head. Well that day is now and I've really tried to do a lot of brainstorming as to what I would like to do in like 5 years, or heck even 5 days. Over the summer I met a lot of cool families and most of them asked if I was going to school to be a teacher because I was selling educational books. Usually my reply involved some form of "no" and a quick explanation as to what exactly a communications major was.

I did meet this one mom however that keeps plaguing my mind. This is kind of sad so prepare yourself accordingly. Abby, if you're reading this, you might want to grab some tissues. It's terrible but I don't even remember her name or her two little girls' names. I can remember exactly what her house looked like and where it was, but for the life of me I can't remember her name. Anyway, I knocked on this door and an older woman came to the door. I went through my usual approach of figuring out if she was a grandmother or just baby-sitting. Turns out she was simply watching the kids, but she told me to come back after five to catch the mom. Now this happens quite frequently and it's a great thing because that means that the mom works. Working means she cares about herself and her children enough to make some money, which in then tells us that she would be a cool mom to talk to. So I go back later that evening and start talking with her.

I go through my whole demo of the books and she's smilling and laughing and her kids were a freaking blast to show the books to. They loved the books so much and were asking a million questions about the contents of the books. At the end the mom told me she just simply couldn't afford it because her husband had just passed away. Wow. Boom it hits you doesn't it? Normally in this situation if someone really likes the books you try to "re-close" them. I didn't. There are very few times when I stop being persistent as a salesperson but this type of situation calls for it. I expressed my sympathy and began to pack up my things but then the mom started asking me about what I was going to do. I told her probably sales or who knows, and she suggested that I become a teacher. I smiled and asked her why and she told me that I was really good with kids and all that stuff, but then she said something that was totally out of the ordinary response. She told me that I could really impact a lot of people and get through to some kids that might really need some help.

Her words stayed in my right ear for the rest of the summer and even to this day. Well some other things have happened pretty much all today where I've given education a second chance. At church tonight, one of the teachers told me to apply to substitute teach for the kindergarten or first graders. I laughed and immediately brushed it off, but she said the same similar thing about being good with kids because I used to watch the nursery instead of going to church (I know terrible right? It was my excuse when I was younger of how to get out of listening to the sermon).

Here's the last part that really makes me think. My last post mentioned working for the Navy. I took this Navy Ops test and it basically told me that I was in the persuader category. (Totally not me right? haha) Under this several different positions, but Religion and Education came up as the top two. I have this underlying fear that I will some day be called into the ministry so that kind of freaked me out. When I saw education I immediately started scrolling down to see what else it recommended for me. So at this point, who knows? Everyone has an idea of what I should do or what I would be good at, and maybe they're right. Maybe I should be a teacher? All of this to say I had teaching ruled out, but it's creeping back into my options. Pray for me. I'm gonna need it.