This is a photo I actually took a couple years ago but never published or shared with anyone outside of fulfilling its immediate purpose. This was taken when I started my Master’s program in 2008: my instructor for the very first course I took gave us the option of writing a paper or doing an art project for our final assignment. The assignment was to share with the class your feelings about, and reasons for going into the teaching profession.
I originally went to school for art and received my BA from the Art Institute of Phoenix in 2003. I don’t know how to explain it but I always felt some manner of unrest about working as an artist for the rest of my life. For one thing, it’s not a very family friendly career and provides no long-term security. It also meant that I would spend most of my life exhausting my creativity on others’ vision rather than my own and I still don’t know how I would reconcile with that. Knowing this, and that I very much wanted to be a family man, I was in a bit of a crisis as to what I should do with the rest of my life. The last thing I ever expected was that I would be a teacher. If you had told me in 2003 that I would be on the road to a career as an educator I’d never have believed you.
Through a series of unexpected events and some surprising roles I found myself fulfilling, I feel that I was somehow being prepared for teaching. Knowing that I could never stand in front of a group and teach something I wasn’t excited and passionate about myself, it made sense that I would teach art. When I started my program at University of Phoenix, I was sure I was doing the right thing, but I was a bit terrified as well!
Anyways, all that was to say that my start on the road to a teaching career was a leap of faith. I couldn’t even explain it to myself, let alone anyone else, but I knew that I was right where I was supposed to be. Having completed my Master’s program I feel much more prepared and at ease to fill this role when I finish the certification program I am currently working through. Obviously, I am not getting into the teaching racket for the money so it doesn’t exactly promise any more financial security than a career as an artist, but I wonder now if the unrest I felt about art as a career was only meant to redirect me towards this.