The Day I Knew

        The Day I Knew...

   I believe that education is the way for a better tomorrow and has been a passion of mine for quite sometime. I wanted to become a teacher many years ago. This story is going to tell you a little about my past and the series of events that lead to the ultimate decision of my career choice of becoming a teacher.  The day I knew I wanted to become a teacher was over seven years ago. I remember the scenario like it was yesterday. It was a cool summer afternoon one of my buddies was throwing a party out on his 10 acre farm. We as city folk always saw my buddy’s farm as a place to party, somewhere that our parents couldn't reach us due to the lack of cell phone signal and distance away from the inner city. I at the time had turned twenty-one that past winter. During this one particular outing there seemed to be an abnormal amount of young children attending this party. As all the other adults let their children run around aimlessly in this huge field, I found myself amused of these children’s energy and pursuit of happiness. Their laughter and excitement was not due to the consumption of alcohol or reminiscence of old times. Those fifteen to twenty kids where running around having fun due to being free and living in the moment, playing whatever spontaneous game they had been playing at that time. Their ages must of ranged from eight to fifteen years old. I had found a football a few feet away from where they had been playing. I decided it was time for me to introduce these children the wonderful game of football. It was when I gathered them all up and asked who had played the game before over half of them raised their hand; I was pleasantly surprised by their answer. So the game began, the rules were those of a typical football game accept as opposed to tackling we played to hand tag, to bring a play to an end. I put myself the all-time QB position, this means I played quarterback for both teams. I was drawing up passing plays and run plays on the fly and led each team to touchdowns almost every drive. The kids loved it and embraced playing this game we had played for over two hours before the game ended. It was playing this game that I realized I had the most fun, not drinking and goofing around with all the other drinkers at the party. It was then I realized teaching kids was a career I wanted to pursue, Although it was a distant dream because at the time I had a two year-old son and a full-time job, better than most, and paid the bills.

               The day came where I lost my job, for over nine years I gave a lot of my life to this company and to just let me go like they did was  really devastating for me. Now at the age of twenty-six years old I was jobless and in panic, how will I pay my bills, how will I support my family?  Luckily, I had qualified for unemployment which allowed me to take some time to figure out my next career move.  A few weeks of being jobless I had been invited to my good friend’s bachelor party. It was at a Buffalo Niagara casino where I got in to an in-depth conversation about teaching with a high school teacher from McDowell. We talked for a few hours walking up and down the aisles of the slot machines at the casino. I had told him about my story of the football game and a few of the things I believed about education and what teaching is all about. He told me that teaching is something I should pursue, and gave me the confidence, that made me knew that I fit the mold and had the passion to become a great teacher. It was then I realized if I could do what I wanted to do for the rest of my life it would be teaching. After some long discussions with my wife and our future together, we decided that school was a real possibility. So here I am today, taking courses here at Edinboro, working a part time job. Taking care of two kids, a six years old son and a one year old daughter, and I couldn’t be happier.