I'll take credentials for $12,000

Trying to figure out life takes a lot of work. Have you ever had a day where you really tried to hammer out the details of your life and afterward found yourself too tired to be productive? I've had a few of those unfortunate days recently.

Life, as usual, finds its way concerned about money. I find myself feeling pressured about pursuing my M.Ed., unsure if this is the path I want to take. I keep coming back to the phrase, "Well, I don't want to keep spending money on something I'm not going to use." I'm sure we've all been there before.

I want to be a college professor. Sometimes I want to drop what I'm doing now, enroll in masters program for English, and just start down that road. However, something keeps telling me, "No. Be patient." So, instead of resisting this urging, I decided to join it, to be patient. In this patience, I have realized that yes, I do want to teach at the collegiate level, but teaching is so much more than having the credentials that qualify you to do so. What can you teach if you have no experience? Facts only go so far. We learn to live, and if I haven't lived, what do I have to teach?

The more I think about this, the more excited I become about where I am and what I am doing now. It's fun to think about the future, but being in the present is pretty great too. Nothing that I am doing is really a waste; it's more like building a resume for life. Besides, I may not be in a classroom right now, but I find myself teaching college students every day, another point I've managed to miss over the past three months.