Written By: Helen Teferi

Inspired By: Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

 

If you give a girl a book, she’s going to ask for another.

When you give her the second book, she’ll probably ask for a third.

When she’s finished, she’ll ask for a pencil.

Then she’ll want to write her own book.

When she writes her own book, she might notice she loves to write.

So she’ll probably ask for a chance at an education.

When she starts her education, she might want to take all the classes she can.

So she might forget about her love of writing.

When she starts taking these other classes, she may find them very interesting.

But she probably won’t ever love what she is learning.

So she’ll most likely get a little discouraged.

When she realizes that she shouldn’t be discouraged, she might think about the past.

So she’ll probably remember how much she used to love to write.

When she remembers her love of writing, she might sign up for English classes.

She may even be the very best student she possibly can be.

So she’ll study very hard, and read and write as well as she can.

When she starts to feel the love again, she might become an even better student.

So she’ll become very enthusiastic in the classroom.

She may even raise her hand to ask a lot of questions.

When her teachers see her enthusiasm, she might get a lot of praise.

She may even get an award for her excellence.

When she realizes how much she loves to learn, she may even think about teaching.

So she’ll probably study really hard, and ask even more questions.

When her teachers see her studying even more, they may offer her opportunities.

So she’ll probably laugh and try to compromise for even more.

She may even end up as a teacher’s assistant in a college classroom.

When she gets nervous about teaching, she may feel like maybe teaching isn’t for her.

So she’ll be shy in front of the classroom, and never make any suggestions.

When her teacher is gone one day, she’ll probably have to take charge.

So her students will probably have a lot of questions.

She might even be the one answering all of those questions, and her students may leave satisfied.

When she realizes how much she helps her students, she might start to love teaching.

She might even want to become a teacher.

When she wants to be extra sure that this is what she wants, she might think about an internship.

So she’ll email a local high school principal and setup a tutoring program.

She might even lead the program to become an annual partnership between both schools.

When she realizes how rewarding teaching can be, she might start to think about the future.

So one day she might start to look up graduate schools.

She might even ask a couple professors for letters of recommendation.

When her teachers are more than willing, she might think about how much they have helped her.

She’ll probably think about how amazing her professors have been.

So she might want to be able to help her future students the way she had been helped.

When she decides to become a professor at the college level, she might get excited.

So she may think about all the different possibilities in her future.

She may even start to apply early to graduate schools.

When she realizes how hard her applications are going to be, she might ask for help.

Thinking about preparing for graduate school might remind her of her exams.

She might even ask for information on taking the graduate school examinations.

And chances are if she asks for that information, she’s going to want the GRE practice exam book.