Switchbacks on the Road of Life

What do you want to be when you grow up? People ask that of little kids all the time. When a little kid answers, "I want to be a fireman" or "I want to be an astronaut", how many of them actually get to live out their dreams in real life?

I can't remember being asked that question when I was young. Maybe people that long ago didn't put that much stock in what a young woman wanted to be. She would be a wife and mother, or a spinster. She wouldn't aspire to be a fire FIGHTER, or an astronaut. Times sure have changed for women of the past few decades.

Life really can throw you a bunch of switchbacks. You head one way and all of a sudden, you are going a different direction, directed by the circumstances of life as it plays out for you.

My life has been a bunch of switchbacks, and my focus has changed in cycles over the years. But the one thing that has remained the same is this, I was born to teach. Every different type of job I've tried has been a job of teaching. Camp counselor as a teen, swim instructor, religion teacher,Girl Scout leader and trainer, preschool director, camp director, elementary school teacher, swim team coach, elementary school administrator, college professor (assistant professor, to be exact!) Each of these roles as I've taken them on have switched me from one age group to another, one area of expertise to another, but I've been in the role of teacher throughout life's switchbacks.

I hope my kids think of me as a teacher also. I'm not sure how they liked their mom to be their teacher also, as it happened that I was in certain circumstances. Now I fall into that role with my grandkids. Teaching is my life, and even though I've done lots of different types of teaching, I still love doing it, and hope I can continue to do it for many years to come.