Early on the morning of June 10, I woke up to terrible news. There was a shooting going on at my old high school.
Each year, Reynolds High School holds about 3,000 students. The student body was somewhere around 2,800 for the 2013–2014 school year. When I heard about what was happening, my stomach tensed and tied itself into knots. I had my eyes glued to my laptop, with every major news website opened. I watched carefully for any new developments and I hoped, really hoped, that it was another hoax played by some inconsiderate child similar to what happened when I was just a freshman there. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t a hoax. It wasn’t some stupid senior pulling off an idiotic prank. This time it was real.
A lot of discussions arise when shootings happen. The tragic event at a school I once called my own was, depressingly, the 74th school shooting in the United States since the absolutely devastating crisis that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut just two years ago. The biggest topics of conversation, or argument, usually revolve around gun violence, gun laws and mental health. There is no question that all of these subjects are important and need to be discussed. However it’s not what I want to talk about at the moment.
I want to talk about the people to whom my mind raced toward the second I heard the news. I want to talk about the people for whom my heart ached, and about whom I worried the most: my teachers.
Several of my teachers, from middle school on, have held a big place in my heart. I’m not sure who I would be today, or if I would even be anywhere near who I am today, without their love, support and guidance. They have inspired me to follow in their footsteps and to make education my career. I can only hope that I will be as great of a role model to others as they have been to me. They have been more than teachers to me; they have also been my mentors and my friends.
To say that teachers are underappreciated and underpaid is an understatement. If you take the time to think of everything that they do, you’ll realize how amazing they really are. They are people who chose a career based on their passions and their love for what they do, rather than money. And that, to me, is an incredible feat on its own. But many of them have families and children of their own as well, and they are still able to be there for hundreds of students each year—they even manage to remember all of their names.
You have to appreciate how much work they put in for their students. Sure, they get summer breaks once school is out for the year. But during the nine months that school is in session, they aren’t working five days a week, they’re working every single day.
Teachers are the crux of a student’s learning environment. It takes rigorous planning and a lot of care in order for them to provide us with the best education. They often work under very complicated and stressful circumstances including ridiculous budget cuts, mass firings and, as a result, largely overfilled classrooms that can greatly hinder a student’s educational experience. Teachers have to endure a lot of obstacles, but they never let these problems take away from the love they have for teaching.
It’s a shame that teachers are often overlooked and taken for granted, because they deserve so much appreciation. It’s not a word that I use often, but if I do use the word “blessed,” I say that I’ve been blessed with some of the best teachers in the world. I consider myself lucky because my teachers have been so approachable over the years, and because I have been able to form personal relationships with them—I’m even friends with several of them on Facebook! Having these personal connections to people I greatly admire has been unbelievably beneficial to me. My teachers, both former and present, have been my greatest inspirations.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that they were the first ones I thought of. They have dedicated their lives to love and nurture us as if we were their own kids. When a tragedy like a shooting strikes a school, it shakes up the whole community. Despite the emotional toil, my teachers were back in school just two days after the event. They chose to go back for the kids.
They chose to go back because they wanted the kids to know that, no matter what, they would always be there to help. They are brave, they are strong and they are, without a doubt,
my heroes.