It takes a special kind of person to be a teacher. It’s choosing a career based on a passion for wanting to make a difference in young lives. It’s a career that I think deserves more respect than it gets. Because it isn’t simply working a school day of 8:00-3:00 being a teacher isn’t a career as much as it is a lifestyle.
It comes with daily stresses of 1 vs. 30 kids or young adults, you have to be responsible for. It comes with wanting to give everyone your individual time and attention but knowing there’s only one of you and so many of them. Teachers are selfless. Their kids are their number one priority and wanting them to succeed is their goal. Being their role model, their mentor, someone they confide in, it isn’t just teaching you are doing.
You are changing their lives through kindness and examples and doing things they don’t even say thank you for or realize, yet you do it anyway. It comes with spending more time in the classroom than you do at home. It comes with weekends prepping for the week ahead with lesson plans and parent meetings and if you choose to be even more apart of the school community maybe you coach on the side.
So now along with teaching and mentoring you are coaching too. And you have a team that looks up to you to guide them.
Yes, there perks to teaching like summers off. But teaching is a career that is a lifestyle so it really never stops. You never stop thinking about your classroom and the kids at school.
So when it comes to relationships when you marry a teacher what you are really marrying into a lifestyle you are choosing to be a part of. It’s a school community that you’re choosing to be your family. It comes with listening as your spouse might be stressed about a student or a lesson or a bad meeting. It comes with breakdowns they might have held together during the day but when they come home they just need you to be there. It comes with knowing they might be home late or not around on the weekends if there’s a game or a convention.
But there are so many perks that come with marrying a teacher.
You are marrying someone who is selfless and caring. Someone who always thinks about others before themselves. You are marrying someone who will never stop believing and motivating you to do more. You are marrying someone who will be your number one cheerleader always. You are marrying someone who you’ll learn from as much as they will learn from you. You are marrying someone who is programmed to never give up on people. Someone who will give you chances until you prove they are right. You are marrying someone who believes in you more than anyone.
Being a teacher isn’t just about teaching a subject and hoping the kids do well on a test, it’s about teaching these kids and young adults about who they can be, what they can amount to and shape future generations simply by believing in them maybe when others haven’t.
It’s about sharing whatever the subject is you are passionate about with others.
When it applies to family, teachers will lead in the same example at home as in the classroom. Always giving their best. Always trying to make the right decision. Always trying to find a solution to any problem and putting family first. When you marry a teacher, you are marrying the person who will help you to raise your family and raise your kids to be the best type of people they can be.
You are marrying someone who will help your kids through whatever problems they are going through because they see it.
And in return for choosing to be a part of this lifestyle and supporting them, they will always be loyal to you. They will love you unconditionally. They will teach you about the art of multitasking. You are choosing someone with patience and compassion and who listens to everything you will say even if it’s in a whisper.
You are choosing someone who can handle stressful situations with a lot of grace.
But every teacher knows it’s okay to have fun too. Because as much fun as they try to make learning, they also know how to have a good time outside of the classroom.
You marry a teacher and you’re marrying the best type of person there is and in return, you too will become your best self-standing beside someone who never stops believing in you and will never give up on you.
By Kirsten Corley for ThoughtCatalog