All I Have to Give

I've had a lot of good teachers in my life.

But my world has completely changed since I encountered my college professors. Not all of them that's for sure. But some of them, wow, some of them have changed my life.

They are good people. And I mean GOOD. They understand where they fit in this world, knowing they cannot change the world, but they can respect it. And they can learn about it and search it and love it. They are good people through and through. I've seen them give of their time and resources to me personally, as well as to the little Ugandan children on the side of the road, to the students in their class, and the minorities and the strugglers and the lonely.

These professors seem to forge paths for those who cannot seem to forge their own. Or they speak about the beauty of the often overlooked and misunderstood.

They showed me who I am and where I fit in this big world. That, like them, I cannot change the world. But  I can learn about it and search it and love it and most importantly- respect it.

That is why I want to be a college professor one day.

I want to do for others what my professors have done for me.

I want to pay it forward. I NEED to pay it forward because I have been so lucky.

This semester in my class we've been focusing a lot on poverty in the US and the big income inequality that we have. I, like my students, came to college completely misunderstanding the plight of the poor. It is easy to look at the homeless on the side of the road and say- "get a job like the rest of us." I'll admit, I was all too guilty of that.

But my eyes have been opened to the structure around us, and around them. Sometimes, a job just doesn't cut it. There is so much more to it than that. They are people just like me. With struggles and triumphs, with addictions and weaknesses, with family and fears. And they are trying. This lesson i've learned, i've wanted to teach.

And I think in the last few classes there has been a break through. I just received an email from someone saying that their eyes have been opened to so many different things because of this class. I could cry I'm so happy.

I want to be the professor to others, like some of mine have been to me.

They have given me endless opportunities to study and grow and travel, and they changed my life.

And that is why I want to become a college professor.