There are some days when I wonder if I really chose the right career and for a brief moment I will even consider giving it all away. Sometimes I wonder if I’m really cut out for research and other days I despair at teaching. Not today though. This afternoon I escaped to my office for 15 mins after lunch, before a full afternoon of teaching ahead of me. When one of my 1st year students turned up at the door, my first thought was that they wanted to complain about or question last semester’s exam and I just wasn’t in the mood. Instead she wanted to have a chat, to talk of her hopes and dreams and to tell me about how the whole uni experience was treating her so far, and to ask a little of my own story. She also wanted to tell me how my lectures, right at the start of the year had inspired her to learn and how much she and her friends missed my teaching now.
Those short 10 mins were the highlight of my day and not just because of the kind words about me, but because at that moment I could really feel that I had inspired someone, as others had inspired me before.
That’s why I love teaching and next time I wonder what I’m doing here, I’ve got that moment to remind me what it is all about.