When I think about my high school experience as a whole, most of the time I don’t want to think about it. Puberty, cliques, fights, and breakups are the things that come to my mind first, and none of those things were fun or memorable. But for some reason I want to be a high school teacher…I guess I either didn’t torture myself enough or I want to be there for other teenagers to help make their “most memorable” years less painful.

Most of you are probably thinking I must have been a bad student, but on the contrary, I was quite a good student. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and found most classes to be a breeze. I lived in the art room as much as I possibly could, and I adored my art teachers. (It’s them I blame for my career aspirations). I looked up to them like they were not only because they were good teachers, but as artists and people I only hoped to someday become.

Looking to where I am now, I know I still have a long way to go to becoming that adored teacher who is also a great person and artist, but I can see it happening more and more clearly every day. I do fear that I will not live up to my own expectations of the kind of teacher I want to be because of the pressure I feel to be great. I think about how much I respected my teachers’ abilities to work smoothly with the students and create an environment that made people want to be in the art room. I have this fear that I will not be able to do the same.

I hope that through working with high school students before my student teaching will break the ice for me and show me some divine way to connect with my students and have the ability to take charge. I know that practice doesn’t make perfect, but it sure does help.

I’ve posted a photo of a project I created in high school during a ceramics class. It began as a vase, and ended up as it is now. It’s called Infinitesimal. If you don’t know the meaning to that word—look it up and you may see more meaning to the piece.