I define me

By:  Melissa Boyd (Whetstone Staff Writer)

Melissa Boyd

It’s an amazing thing when you can finally imagine yourself in the future.

Five years ago, as a freshman in high school, I really thought I knew what I wanted. I had these plans, and it’s funny how those plans changed so drastically in such a short time period at Wesley.

I used to want to be a doctor, and I didn’t really want much of a family life. I used to always say, “Yeah, I want kids, but I don’t want the husband,” which obviously doesn’t work out too well. I was pretty serious about grades, and numbers really meant the world to me – whether it was those on a weight scale, a grading scale, or whatever – those numbers meant a lot to me. They almost defined me.

One year at Wesley and I define me, not a set of numbers.

During that year, a lot happened to me in the way of personal growth. I stopped the “boy-toy” dating game where I dated a new guy every other month, and settled down with an amazing boyfriend with whom I’ve now spent more than a year and will continue to be with him.

I changed my major to something I truly enjoy and can envision myself doing for the rest of my life: education. I learned that although I spend $20,000 each year to go to Wesley, the courses and textbooks aren’t the only things that college teaches.

I’ve had education professors teach me that a student isn’t a number – yes, there are grades. But tests don’t define whether a student is “smart,” especially not in a young, developing child.

I’ve now physically seen how teachers use class participation rather than a test grade to define them academically, both in my college courses, as well as in my middle school observation.

While I was walking to class one day, I kept thinking about those “learning moments” I learned about the other day, and I was thinking about how I would want to teach my class by showing my students, not by telling them.

In my class, our learning moment was seeing the crane work outside of our window. The crane was distracting, even for college students, and we were focused more on the crane than the lesson. Our professor used that time to show us that sometimes teachers need to take a little time out of the lesson and bring the classroom down to earth.

I recently saw a squirrel carrying its baby across the street. That would be an example of when I would let my students stop working to see nature in its real state, rather than making them work on their assignments nonstop. They would learn by seeing how a squirrel cares for its children, rather than reading about squirrels and their babies in the classroom setting.

I see myself in the front of a classroom one day, maybe not quite yet, but someday I can actually see it. I can see things I want to incorporate in my class, and things I do not.

I see myself with a husband and kids, a career that I enjoy, and all of the dreams I had slowly let slip away as I got so contaminated with my only goal being a 4.0 GPA.

I see myself as a person, not a set of numbers.