How Do I Know?

Like many other kids, I was always changing what I wanted to be when I grew up, including possibilities such as meteorologist, mapmaker, and lawyer. It was only near the end of high school that I considered becoming a teacher. However, now that I am 5 weeks away from graduating and moving on to my internship, I confront the same question as many of my fellow seniors. How do I know that I'm really on the correct career path? One way I have been able to answer that question is by looking at how I prefer to spend my time. For one thing, I notice that whenever I have a paper due in my history classes, if I also have some type of reading for my education class, I will do that reading first because I prefer to spend my work time learning about education than writing about history. Furthermore, I always look forward more to going to my jobs, tutoring student athletes and teaching math recitation sections, or to my placement, than going to classes where I learn more content. It could also be some senioritis, but I feel like every step I take towards being a teacher is a welcome replacement for being a student and I would not feel that way if I were not going in the right direction. Even the hard work of designing and writing lesson plans is homework that I find enjoyable relative to any other assignments I have had as a student. In general, I have noticed that I prefer helping other people learn than actually learning more myself. I firmly believe that people should like their careers and I do not think that will be difficult for me, even though I do wonder how it is possible for a tax accountant to enjoy March and April:

Original Image: taxes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/honan/453195084/sizes/s/in/photostream/
By: Mat Honan

Released under an Attribution License
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