I am pursuing a career in education because teaching is the one path that has always felt right to me. Some people spend years trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, but for me, everything I have experienced has pointed me toward becoming an elementary school teacher. It is a career that lets me take the things I value most, like patience, service, guidance, and stability, and put them into something meaningful. I grew up in a home filled with kids. My family has taken in more than seventy five foster children over the years, and we adopted three of them. With five siblings total, I have seen firsthand how important it is for children to have someone who believes in them and shows up for them. Kids come into our home with all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of stories. Some are scared, some angry, and some unsure of who they can trust. I learned very quickly how powerful it is to make a child feel safe, heard, and respected. Those moments taught me that caring for kids is not just something I am good at, it is something I am meant to do. Because of this, being a teacher feels like more than a career choice. It feels like the next step in the work I have already been doing my whole life. I want to take everything I learned in my own home and bring it into a classroom, where kids need adults who understand them, who are patient, and who are willing to meet them where they are. I also want to pursue education because I want to offer what so many teachers offered me. School was not always easy, and there were days when I felt overwhelmed by life outside the classroom. But I had teachers who noticed when something was off. They encouraged me, challenged me, and reminded me that I was capable even when I doubted myself. Their belief in me mattered more than they probably know. I want to be that person for my students someday. Teaching is not just about handing out worksheets or going through a curriculum. It is about shaping the way kids see themselves and the world around them. It is about helping them build confidence, learn problem solving, and grow into kind, strong, capable people. I want to create a classroom where students feel welcome, supported, and excited to learn, not just because of the lessons but because they know they matter. I plan to attend UW Green Bay for my degree because it keeps me close to home and close to the people who helped shape me. My family is a huge part of who I am, and staying near them will help me stay grounded as I work toward becoming the teacher I want to be. I am pursuing education because I want to make a difference in the lives of kids the way others made a difference in mine. I want to be someone who helps students feel safe, seen, and confident. I want to spend my life doing something that matters. For me, teaching is exactly that.

I am pursuing a career in education because teaching is the one path that has always felt right to me. Some people spend years trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, but for me, everything I have experienced has pointed me toward becoming an elementary school teacher. It is a career that lets me take the things I value most, like patience, service, guidance, and stability, and put them into something meaningful. I grew up in a home filled with kids. My family has taken in more than seventy five foster children over the years, and we adopted three of them. With five siblings total, I have seen firsthand how important it is for children to have someone who believes in them and shows up for them. Kids come into our home with all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of stories. Some are scared, some angry, and some unsure of who they can trust. I learned very quickly how powerful it is to make a child feel safe, heard, and respected. Those moments taught me that caring for kids is not just something I am good at, it is something I am meant to do. Because of this, being a teacher feels like more than a career choice. It feels like the next step in the work I have already been doing my whole life. I want to take everything I learned in my own home and bring it into a classroom, where kids need adults who understand them, who are patient, and who are willing to meet them where they are. I also want to pursue education because I want to offer what so many teachers offered me. School was not always easy, and there were days when I felt overwhelmed by life outside the classroom. But I had teachers who noticed when something was off. They encouraged me, challenged me, and reminded me that I was capable even when I doubted myself. Their belief in me mattered more than they probably know. I want to be that person for my students someday. Teaching is not just about handing out worksheets or going through a curriculum. It is about shaping the way kids see themselves and the world around them. It is about helping them build confidence, learn problem solving, and grow into kind, strong, capable people. I want to create a classroom where students feel welcome, supported, and excited to learn, not just because of the lessons but because they know they matter. I plan to attend UW Green Bay for my degree because it keeps me close to home and close to the people who helped shape me. My family is a huge part of who I am, and staying near them will help me stay grounded as I work toward becoming the teacher I want to be. I am pursuing education because I want to make a difference in the lives of kids the way others made a difference in mine. I want to be someone who helps students feel safe, seen, and confident. I want to spend my life doing something that matters. For me, teaching is exactly that.

Service has never been something I had to search for. It is something I grew up living every day. My family has welcomed more than seventy five foster kids into our home over the years, and because of that, I learned from a young age what it means to show up for people who need support, patience, and kindness. We adopted three of those children, and with five siblings total, our home has always been full of noise, chaos, and moments that taught me more about compassion than any textbook ever could. Being surrounded by kids from so many different backgrounds showed me how powerful small acts of service can be. Sometimes service looked like helping a scared toddler fall asleep on their first night with us. Other times it meant staying patient with a child who did not trust anyone yet, or sitting with someone who was overwhelmed and needed a calm voice nearby. Those experiences did not just teach me how to take care of others. They shaped who I am. They taught me that service is not always a big, dramatic gesture. A lot of the time, it is simply making someone feel safe, understood, and valued. Outside my home, I have continued to serve in my community. I have worked at places like Shell Plastics, Hartman’s Bakery, and G Scoops, but one of the most meaningful things I have done was volunteering at the Washington County Foster Closet. I helped organize donations, prepare clothing and essentials for families, and support kids who were entering foster care with almost nothing. Seeing how a bag of clothes or a simple backpack could brighten a child’s day made me realize how important it is to meet people’s needs with dignity and care. These experiences are a big part of why I want to become an elementary school teacher. When I imagine my future classroom, I do not just see desks and homework. I see kids who come from all different situations, some stable, some complicated, and some still trying to figure out where they fit in. I want to be the kind of teacher who notices the quiet kid who is having a hard day. The teacher who listens, who encourages, and who makes school feel like a safe place instead of just another responsibility. Beyond academics, I want my future students to gain confidence from being in my classroom. I want them to learn how to think for themselves, how to work through frustration, and how to treat people with empathy. I hope they walk away feeling like someone believed in them, even on the days they did not believe in themselves. I know exactly how much that matters. Education has the power to change lives, not only by teaching facts but by shaping people. I want to lead with heart and purpose, the same way others have done for me. If I can help even one student feel seen, supported, and capable of more than they imagined, then I will know I have honored the spirit of service I was raised with. That is the impact I hope to make as a teacher.

Wrestling is more than a sport to me. People on the outside see the sweat, the bruises, the early mornings, and the constant grind, and they think that’s what wrestling is. But they’re only seeing the surface. Wrestling is a family , not always perfect, not always easy, but a family that shows up, pushes you, annoys you, supports you, and somehow makes you stronger than you ever thought you could be. Some people say wrestling is the hardest sport. Honestly? I’d agree. It takes everything from you: your strength, your patience, your confidence, and sometimes even your sanity when practice feels like it’s never going to end. You don’t get to hide on a field or blend into a team. It’s just you out there. Every move you make, every mistake, every victory, it’s all on you. That kind of pressure can break you or build you, and wrestling taught me how to choose the second option. I’ve had moments on the mat where I wanted to quit. Times where I felt like I wasn’t strong enough, fast enough, or good enough. But wrestling pushed me past all of that. It taught me that even on the days when I feel like I have nothing left, I actually do. There’s always one more push, one more fight, one more breath I didn’t think I had. And learning that about myself changed everything. But the thing that means the most to me , the part I would never trade , is the people. Wrestlers understand each other in a way no one else can. You go through the hardest practices together. You cut weight together. You get yelled at together. You win together. You lose together. And even when there’s drama or tension or someone who makes your life a little harder, at the end of the day, you all survived the same battles. That creates a bond that’s honestly hard to explain. It’s like having a second family, one that bleeds, sweats, and fights right beside you. Wrestling also gave me a place to put the emotions I didn’t know how to handle. When life got stressful or overwhelming, the mat became the one place where everything made sense. It was the place where I could work through things without talking, without pretending I was fine, without bottling everything up. Wrestling let me take all the frustration, fear, and pressure I carried and turn it into something productive. In a weird way, it helped me become myself. What wrestling means to me is strength , not just physical strength, but the kind that makes you get up after you’ve been knocked flat on your back. The kind that makes you keep going when nobody is watching. The kind that makes you believe in yourself even when it feels impossible. Wrestling shaped who I am. It made me tougher, more determined, and more honest with myself. It taught me how to fight , not just on a mat, but in life. And that’s something I’ll carry long after my last match.

My “pie in the sky” dream isn’t flashy or wild. It’s not becoming famous or chasing some impossible mountain. It’s something simple, steady, and meaningful: I want to become an elementary school teacher. That might sound ordinary to some people, but to me, it feels like the most important thing I could ever do with my life. I grew up surrounded by kids. literally. My family has had more than seventy-five foster kids come through our home over the years. Three of those kids became my adopted siblings, and along with my two biological siblings, my world has never been quiet or empty. There’s always someone laughing, crying, learning, messing up, or trying again. Being the oldest meant I was constantly helping, guiding, and teaching without even realizing it. Somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, I realized how much I loved it. Watching foster kids walk through our door for the first time changed me. Some came in scared, some angry, some unsure if they could trust anyone. I saw the way a little patience, attention, and kindness could shift their whole day. I learned that kids aren’t “too much” they’re just trying to figure out a world that hasn’t always been fair to them. And I learned that I want to be someone who makes that world a little easier for them to navigate. That spark, the moment I realized helping kids wasn’t just something I did because I had to, but something I wanted to do, is what grew into my dream of teaching. I want to go to UW–Green Bay and earn my bachelor’s degree in education so I can finally turn this dream into something real. Staying close to home matters to me. My family is my base. They are the people who made me who I am. And honestly, after seeing everything my siblings have gone through, I want to be close enough to still show up for them. I don’t need a college halfway across the country to prove anything. I just need a place that will challenge me, teach me what I need to know, and keep me connected to the people who ground me. But reaching this dream won’t just happen because I want it. I know I’ll have to work hard, stay disciplined, and be willing to grow. Teaching isn’t easy. It takes patience on days when you feel like you have none. It takes creativity when the lesson plan crashes and burns. It takes courage to show up for kids who sometimes don’t know how to let someone care about them. And it takes commitment, not just to the job, but to becoming a better version of myself every year. My pie-in-the-sky goal might look simple, but it’s exactly what inspires me. I want to stand in a classroom one day and know that I earned it, that all the late nights, the studying, the stress, and the choices I made along the way led me there. I want to be the kind of teacher who sees kids for who they are and who they can be. And if a kid looks back years later and remembers that I believed in them when they needed it most, then that’s more than a dream. That’s a life I’m proud of.