When did you know you wanted to be a teacher?

I knew I wanted to be a teacher during my junior year at Iowa State. But I was scared and especially worried about not making enough money. I took a few education classes at ISU and loved them, but the idea of commitment was too daunting for me. After I graduated from ISU I forgot about teaching for a while and just floated along through life for a bit. I moved to Michigan, lived in a beach house and worked at a restaurant. It was fun, but I was stalling. Then I moved to Chicago and got a job at Northwestern. It was pretty sweet at first; I made money, had benefits, wore suits and had friends in Chicago. Eventually, I came to loathe Northwestern; I was anxious, I gained weight, I hated everything and felt stuck. Then Matt decided to go to law school and we moved to Iowa City. I was excited, but that excitement quickly drained, I interviewed at a ton of places and then the economy went really bad; I had no job, no friends, I felt depressed, unsuccessful and mostly unfulfilled. However, I learned a lot about myself, I matured, found focus and I found my sense of humor again (Northwestern had taken it!). I reevaluated things and I decided to go back to school to get my teaching certificate- and I’m totally stoked about it. I had missed art. I missed school. I think that my love of both is why I want to be a teacher. It took a while to get back but I have always been the kind of person that had to try out a bunch of things before making a decision. I feel like this is right and that I’m finally doing what I wanted to do years ago.