So I was at school walking down the hall this morning. I walked past classrooms, peeking into the windows, seeing students interacting with their teachers and with each other – I have to admit, as dorky as it sounds, it warmed my heart.

I think secretly I wanted to be a career student, that is, someone who is a student for pretty much most of their lives. These are people who never end up getting a job but just go from course to course studying and living the student lifestyle. I liked high school, maybe not the academics of it, but I definitely liked the friends and the socialising. Nowadays its  slightly different.

Learning is something I really enjoy and something that does energise me. I love sitting with my intellectual friends and hearing them talk about meaning and various aspects about how our world operates. I love learning and hearing about things I never even think about, things that don’t even pass my daily thoughts (which are usually on the most part, pretty self absorbed), for example CERN’s  Large Hadron Collider.

I believe that learning is about opening your mind up to endless possibilities. Broadening our world and perspective. Its about being able to make the most informed choices we can.

I think I am a fairly naturally inquisitive person. I want to know everything. And I also like to know about people, who you they, what makes them happy, what makes them tick. I guess that sort of make sense, me working in a school and all. Being in a place where there is learning and there is people. Some of the times I feel most alive is when I am with my students and we are interacting and discussing. Its almost like I can feel my brain juices being churned around my head. Sometimes I walk out of my classes and I feel so alive and so good about life. It is a really strange high.

I don’t know if all people feel this way about their jobs sometimes. But I have to admit though I feel that teaching can be a very draining and tiresome job (I really hate marking, and I really hate administration!) there are definitely aspects of it that deeply satisfy something inside my very core.

And like most jobs, some days I feel like I am doing absolutely nothing to make a difference in my world. I feel like my words are bouncing off their heads and it all seems a bit hopeless.  And then I get a random email from a student that shows me that something in the way I related to them has opened the eyes of at least one person and it made a difference  (even if it is small) in their world.

This is a most intensely satisfying feeling.