Before my first breath, I attended class

Listening to voices and what they said

Words too complex for my understanding

Yet their inflections and tones stirred within

Little did I know, I’d find a career

In this place I had never even seen

 

I walked up to the biggest place I’d seen

My birthday, the first day of my first class

Only five, no plan for any career

But absorbing all my first teacher said

A desire to learn, growing within

A calling beyond my understanding

 

Six years of growing, new understanding

Walking on stage, looking at all I’d seen

And come to know, teachers touched me within

Inspired me to learn and love each class

Moving on, I absorbed all that they said

Somehow knowing it would be my career

 

Shy and nervous, middle school pushed that career

To the side, no friends with understanding.

Focusing on class, I hid what was said.

In that new world, cliques I had never seen

Tried to disrupt my enjoyment of class

Hurting those dreams for the future within

 

Five years later, a new spark was within

Taking a class for that future career

I learned and grew and absorbed that new class

Working with students and understanding

Their lives, talking, teaching. Seeing

Potential in them. “Thank you,” they said.

 

Soon, I’ll thank them for all that they said.

For their influence on my heart within

Opening my mind to what could be seen

That it’s so much more than just a career…

About stirring, listening, understanding

And I can’t wait to inspire my own class.

 

“Don’t be a teacher”, they said, not understanding.

But deep within my heart, it’s more than what is seen,

More than a career… it’s our future in a class.