“I never wanted to become a teacher,” I said, smiling.
That is not the most romantic thing someone could say to the state teacher of the year judging panel. Most of the candidates for the Texas Teacher of the Year award say that teaching has always been in the their blood. They say their mother was a teacher. Their father was a teacher. Two of their aunts were principals. Their grandfather was a superintendent. They played school with their dolls. They tried to make their kittens stand in line for recess. They were meant to be in the classroom.
Not me.
I told the thirteen judges on the interview panel that I never wanted to be the classroom. I didn’t want to be a teacher because I had listened to my heart, and my heart told me I was meant to be a writer and only a writer …