Two weeks ago, my husband and I came across a very negative, jaded young woman. She was maybe five years older than us at most, and she was pretty darn hopeless.
We shared a common bond. We all graduated from the great Slippery Rock University. "Please don't tell me you all are educators" she said with her condescending, rolling eyes.
Um, yes. We are. Proud of it.
As the conversation went on, she became more and more negative. "You won't make any money...you'll never advance...you'll always be stuck doing the same thing."
All things we've heard before, of course. And all things that might have some truth to them.
But then there was this one: "I was like you once...I thought I was going to change the world. Just know, you won't change the world."
I beg to differ.
Teaching is one of the hardest things I've ever done- and I've only done it for one year. I hear the hardest stuff usually comes first, but I imagine it will get harder. It is uncomfortable. It is energy-sucking and all-consuming. Time, emotions, mind- everything.
It doesn't pay a lot. But it pays enough. That is not what it is about for me, though. If you want a lot of money, don't be a teacher. It's pretty ridiculously simple to come to that conclusion.
I don't really have a big dream for money. I also don't have a big dream to change the world.
But I do have a super-big dream to change at least one student a year. I hope it is more than that, but just one is so seriously worth it.
I have a big dream to make just one student that didn't feel loved or worthy, feel those things because I invested my time and energy into them. I dream to make one student gain the confidence that they didn't have in themselves before they came into my classroom. That is really all I hope for. And in the little time I've been teaching, with all my time and energy invested, it is totally do-able.
I know teaching doesn't look like Dead Poets' Society or Freedom Writer's moments. I know it looks more like chaos and garbage-on-the-floor and moving the desks back into place every day. It looks like planning for hours and taking home way more homework than your students do. It looks like sitting down at your desk and placing your head in your hands and just breathing deep- finally- at the end of the day.
But even in the chaos and the hard parts, it looks like the opportunity to love students and be a role-model to those that might not have one at home. It looks like the opportunity to come alongside someone struggling and show them how much you care.
So I don't have a dream to change the world. But I do believe I can. Because I believe just changing one person is changing the world in just a little way- as cliche as that sounds.
This Sunday at church, the message was on discipleship. I was reminded just how Jesus' ministry worked in changing lives. It was all about investing time, love, and energy into authentic relationships with a small amount of people. And those people were changed from that- they felt loved and worthy and truly alive- so they went and did the same for a few others. And this crazy, domino-effect thing happened.
That is what we are called to do. I think I picked a great profession where I can authentically love people that need to be loved. I think I picked a profession that can change the world. And not in a blindly-optimistic kind of way. But more so in a hard, labor-of-love-that-sometimes-involves-tears kind of way.
It isn't just teaching. Whoever you are, whatever you do. You can change the world. I'm not being sarcastic or overly-inspirational. I'm being serious. Pick the people-group that is on your heart. Find at least one of them. And love them like its your job, because it is.
Oh, and don't listen to anyone that tells you that you can't change the world. They are seriously wrong.
