Teaching - Be Ready for All the Feelings

This weekend, I had a teacher high moment.  I got the privilege of attending the wedding of a former student.  It's not the first I've had the pleasure of attending, and I know it won't be the last.  I smiled, cried, laughed, and got to feel pride for her and her sister and bridesmaids (also mine).  I got to talk with several former students about what they are up to now, and it was lovely.

There are definitely teacher high moments like these, but there are also others, some good, some bad, some truly horrible, and some that defy description.  Some days bring the highest highs, like those that come from a student making you enormously proud.  Some push you into a deep hole, which you were not trained for handling.  I have experienced a range that includes the funerals of students and a shooting threat along with the joy of teaching alongside one of my students and supporting their ministries.  Every day brings with it a range of emotions, from hope to disappointment, amusement to irritation, joy to sadness.

If you are considering education as a career, here's the thing you need to know.  Be ready.  Be ready to have all of the feelings.  There are days you will love your kids like crazy.  There are days you will wish "that one" was absent.  You will be proud of the kid who fights hard to squeak by with a D and disappointed by the A student you catch cheating on a test.  No day is either purely good or purely bad.  You may hear, "I hate you" and "I love you" on the same day (and sometimes in response to the same event).  No year is either purely good or purely bad.  The events of last year were terrible, but the students were amazing.  You will laugh so hard that tears run down your face, and you will cry so hard that you finally start laughing with hysteria.  You will get angry, and you will feel pride - sometimes with the same child.  You will go home exhausted and wake up energized.  People will not understand what you do or how you feel, and that will both bother you and make you a little bit proud.

If you choose this career, I can guarantee one thing.  You will not ever be bored, so get ready.