my sparkle can't be lost

i had quite the saddening experience tonight. it lasted less than five minutes but it almost took my sparkle away.

while enjoying dinner with one of my besties, i was sharing my plan for finishing up my degree in education and following it with time overseas with the Peace Corps. then our neighbors at the table next to us decided to chime in.

"do not become a teacher. do not waste your time unless you can't see yourself doing anything else. the pay isn't that great and its gotten horrible in the schools. it was my career and I'm retired now. I don't recommend it to anyone anymore. stay away from education. don't be a teacher."

i couldn't believe it. this stranger at the table next to me spent her time listening to our conversation (i couldn't tell you one word in their conversation) and then instilling more fear into my life and telling me not to go after a dream of mine. why would she do this? her life probably hasn't been the easiest but she also hasn't lived the life i've lived. i'm also younger than she is so the condition of education and schools and youth isn't anything new to me (it's only been a few years since i was in high school anyway). i just do not understand how someone can offer unwanted, discouraging advice to someone with a sparkle?

i have wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten and it's been the world that has kept me from that. the world broke me and if all i cared about was money i know i'm smart enough to go into some career that would earn me lots but that's not what a teacher cares about. she did make a good observation though: "teachers are born, not made." i was born to be a teacher and i have found that where and how i want to serve my God just happens to require a bachelor's degree. plus its a step forward and that's better than standing still getting left behind in life.

I'm lucky because the friend i was with helped remind me that this stranger has no place in my life and that I can do whatever I want. I figure that i know where God wants me to go and that at the end of this phase He will show me the next step. I know that the "teaching field" isn't the most ideal career to go into but its the field for me and no stranger can talk me out of it!

i want to be someone that helps children find their sparkle and keep it safe from the world and all the nay-sayers out there. God puts an individual, unique sparkle in each of us when He created us and its our job to discover what to do with that sparkle. the world will keep trying to cover it up, put it under a rock and knock it out of you, but it will never succeed. i will be a teacher and will let God show me where to take my sparkle!!!