Because of love... My passion for early childhood education stems, first, from my love for children. I am known as the one who can soothe a baby or entertain a toddler. I have babysat for years, but as a high school student, I initially never considered a career as a teacher. After a brief scare with a knot in my right breast and multiple ultrasound appointments in 2020, I had considered a career as an ultrasound technician. However, an experience my senior year of high school last year changed that. I was placed in a second-grade classroom as a teacher’s aide. I fell in love with the idea of being a teacher through my love for the students, the teacher, Mrs. Caperton, and the classroom itself. I was reminded of my own positive experiences in an elementary classroom and found an appreciation for the job of teaching through my position as a teacher’s aide. Since then, I have recognized that my passion for early childhood education has evolved not only from my love of children but also from my love of learning and my love for teaching. As I presently pursue a degree in early childhood education as a sophomore at Northeast Alabama Community College, I am also gaining experience working at the First United Methodist Church of Scottsboro’s Preschool. I enjoy the thirty hours each week I spend with the children at the preschool and love those children, just as I did those second graders, who first sparked my love for teaching. Pursuing employment in the early childhood realm proves my dedication to the field. I am passionate about early childhood education because I love children. Since my senior year of high school and into my first official year of college, I have found a renewed love for learning, specifically reading. Mrs. Caperton has a love for teaching her students, in particular, a love for teaching them how to read. As an avid reader herself, she is dedicated to helping struggling readers and inspiring them to love reading. She even sparked a renewed love for reading in me! Between Mrs. Caperton’s encouragement my senior year of high school and my transition into college, I have been motivated to read more. I enjoy reading for leisure, but I also love reading about teaching. In fact, I am currently enrolled in my first early childhood education class. I have recently read in class that eighty percent of a child’s brain develops by the age of eight. What a fact to confirm the importance of the early childhood education teacher! I am passionate about early childhood education because I love learning myself. Finally, I love teaching littles basic steps which they can take with them into the future. Working at the preschool has given me the opportunity to actually teach children on some days. I decorate for holidays, render aid to boo boos, prepare lunches, teach lessons, and read books. I am teaching children on my present job everything from fine motor skills to social skills to reading skills. I am passionate about early childhood education because I can see the importance of what children must be taught at an early age, and I love teaching them. My passion for early childhood education is centered on love. The love for children, I have had for a long time, but my passion for learning how to teach them and doing so has developed within the last year and a half. However, this burning passion of mine will last me through my educational journey and into a long career in my future classroom.