Years ago, in California, the first school I ever went to was a headstart school in Hesperia. It was a fun time, but then I had to go to kindergarten. Kindergarten was my first taste of what post-pre-school education was like, gone was all-day playtime, and in came a more structured environment. First grade at first seemed okay, but with grade school came more changes. I also tended to get in trouble a lot.

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Advancing through the grades saw more challenges. It was also around this time I started speech therapy. In my opinion, we should just get rid of R sounds. Despite the difficulty, I had made it through elementary school. However, there was something important that happened in sixth grade. I had found out that I was diagnosed with autism, a mental disorder that causes some people to think and act differently than most. In the years following, when I learned more about autism, I wondered if my challenges with early school was a result of me being autistic.

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Middle school started just all right. It was a big change, but I eventually got through it. I did face some homework issues. I tended to procrastinate and not do it. Though I did see some successes. One example is me being invited to partake in the school’s geography bee and winning it! Besides that, despite group work being a thing I hated, I loved working in groups for Project-Based Learning. With how well eighth grade ended, ninth grade seemed good enough. Little did I know that it would be the worst grade of my life. I could not adjust to ninth grade fast enough and many of the teachers did not really seem to help.

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The final three grades had mixes of highs and lows. Being a scientist had been my goal job since elementary school, but it was in maybe eleventh grade where I had finally chosen to become a teacher after having the opportunity to teach a math and government class a couple of times. Some had even encouraged me to pursue that goal. I decided that since history was now my favorite subject was history, I should teach that. Being a history teacher has been my goal ever since.

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College was another slow start and because of not doing homework, I had to drop out. I felt like a failure, but I got back up. After participating in an internship and getting my first paying job, I came back to Ivy Tech and decided to retake a failed class. I passed with a whopping 102.6%! I began to take college more seriously and even ended up on the Dean’s List.

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I am still completely dedicated to being a teacher. I know that there will still be struggles even after college. Though as a teacher, I hope that I will make an impact on students and be fondly remembered, and not make the same mistakes some of my teachers did.

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Intasc Standard #1: Learner Development.