This is my story of why I became a teacher and why I wake up excited to teach every day. When I was a kid I was an English Language Learner and my elementary schools didn’t have the resources to help. I was bounced around a lot and ended up going to five different elementary schools before I got into fifth grade. Since I didn’t have a consistent learning environment I started to fall really behind in school and it got to the point that I just didn’t even like going to school. In fifth grade I had a teacher who I felt put me on blast. She told that I needed to get my act together and start putting an effort into my school work. She said that I had to care about my learning. I think that was a wake up call for me because the next day I began working as hard as I could in school. Unfortunately, I was really behind academically and it didn’t help that I went to a failing high school. I had a hunger for success that developed over time and that helped me to realize that I wanted to become a teacher. I wanted to help support all the kids who were like me who struggled in school and were overlooked because of it. My journey to becoming a teacher wasn’t easy. When I got into college I had a lot of learning gaps that weren’t addressed earlier so I had to take a lot of pre-requisite courses to even get into the college courses to become a teacher. I spent any time outside of class at the tutoring center, but that fight, that drive, has gotten me to where I am at today. I had a college professor tell me that I was going to make a difference as a teacher and it made a huge impact on my self-esteem. She was the first teacher to ever believe in me. I never want a kid to go through school and not be told that someone believes in them. I make a point to tell my students that I believe in each of them. Every day I work to be the teacher that has patience for a kid who is struggling because I was that kid.