“The few mile of divided road always leaves me with unanswered questions of infinite possibilities.”

It’s always an adventure to grow up and discover where life is going to lead you. But at this point in my life, I want to be able to teach future generations and help them to strive to their best. I’m writing to say why I want to become a teacher but the truth is – I don’t know why exactly. There are a few small reasons but not one that jumps out to say “THIS is the reason”. I suppose I’ve always been opposed to just having one reason or one inspiration.

Growing up nothing ever felt right to me. Even though I was born into a loving family with amazing parents and 2 younger sisters nothing ever felt normal to me. I was the “different” child – moving at the age of 6 back to Scotland from Valencia, restarting primary school in an unfamiliar setting without knowing anyone. This followed me for a long time. I never fit in anywhere, but it didn’t affect me too much at a young age. I still played sports, listened to music, cooked with my dad when he was home every other month. But I never had a friend.

All throughout primary school, I never had anyone other than family around me. I guess being the different child who speaks two languages and doesn’t do “normal” hobbies allowed me to have anything in common. I stopped trying to fit in quite early on and focused on music. It was something I always had, my parents always had music playing back home and I would dance around and sing at the top of my lungs to this foreign thing. My dad taught me to play the guitar from the age of 7, soon after it was singing and a bit of piano. But this didn’t prevent the unfortunate that was to come. I was incredibly shy and unspoken in the classroom, I used to sit in the corner at break and lunchtime or help out in the office or classrooms. Up until primary 7, I could not speak in front of any sized group. Until my teacher worked with me to overcome this fear and I managed to give my class talk on living in Spain. It was the first time in forever that I could talk about anything freely. I was in awe of how my teacher could help me through that and that was the first time I knew I wanted to be able to help people.

Unfortunately, this new-found confidence did not last long at all. Secondary school was like hell to me. I shrunk back into that shy, isolated girl again. A lot of things happened during that first year at secondary which caused me to move to a new school where I knew nobody or anything about it. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made. It was so difficult for the first few years, I made friends but I still couldn’t express myself in a way that was truly me. In 4th year, I made prefect, I had some friends and I chose to sit National 5 RMPS as an extra option. That soon turned into my favourite class – my teacher was an amazing and inspiring person, she convinced me to join my school’s Amnesty International club and she helped me to be more confident in myself. My senior years were rocky but I managed to get through them somehow. I gained more confidence to where I was House Captain, I taught Spanish and RMPS classes, I spoke in groups, I ran my Amnesty International group for two years, and I made the most amazing group of friends.

During my last years, I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. I thought about going into music production as it was – and still is – the most important thing to me that helps me to stay alive. Then I thought about using my knowledge of languages – having qualifications in 4 and self-learning two other – and going into Linguistics and teaching English as a foreign language afterwards. But I realised that I wanted to be able to do what my teachers’ did. I wanted to inspire and help others realise their potential especially after the feelings I experienced at a young age – and still do. Something important to me is learning –  becoming knowledgable and skilled, and also learning how to love myself. I’m still learning how to do both of these but the last one is something I find imperative – especially when you are younger because it can feel as if you are alone and have nothing but life is so much more than that and if I am able to help others, particularly younger generations, to know themselves and be comfortable with that then I feel as though I am fulfilling my purpose. Someone who puts this into an incredible perspective is Kim Namjoon, leader of the South Korean group BTS and an influential individual who spoke at the UN General Assembly during the launch of Generation Unlimited about young people in today’s society.

So I suppose that would be my reasoning for wanting to become a teacher. Although I am still travelling down an unknown road with so many possibilities all I know is that I can make a difference to young people’s lives if I put myself to it. I want to be able to teach them important life skills that they might need in this world and encourage young people to become the best version of themselves.

“As long as I stay with my heart, I can rely on a broken compass.”