Second grade teacher: loves those little boogers and her job!

In Gig, a collection of interviews with contemporary American workers, Katy Bracken claims she fell into teaching.  When she graduated from college she had no idea what she wanted to do.  So she moved to Chicago to dance and work as a waitress.  She asserts "That sobered me up quick" (Bracken, 480) and decided to start looking for a "real job" (Bracken, 480).  That "real job" was a teaching assistant position.  Over the years she has risen through the ranks and now has had a classroom of her own for many years. I think, even though it was not a dream of hers to be a teacher for her entire life, it is something she would now call a calling.

She teaches what she loves to kids that love her.  She confesses "I really get along with the kids this age.  And it feels a little weird, but I love their love...and sometimes I think I'm being duped, because I experience such mutual adoration-me towards them and them towards me-and that I get, like, the adult world where people don't do it it anymore" (Bracken, 483) She is helping the kids learn and finds it very rewarding.  She even goes on to say "I've been, like, redeemed by teaching.  Like was the right thing for me.  I'm a person that should be a teacher."  (Bracken, 484) She has found her calling, and even though it can be challenging and stressful at times she loves it.