Did you remember having everyone ask you, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” This answer can change every time you ask a child. One day it could be an astronaut, other days it might be a firefighter or a baseball player.

As a child I had a million answers. Sometimes I wanted to be a queen; I guess I never realized that meant that I really needed to be moving to another country where there was still a royal family, but I think that is every little girl’s dream at one point or another. Other times I wanted to be a postal worker; after all, what could be better than giving people their mail?

As I got older, the jobs that I wanted were more centered around making lots and lots of money. I wanted to be a fashion designer; just draw a couple sketches and sell millions of dollars worth of clothes. Other times I just wanted to be a sweepstakes winner. I could buy a nice house, my Jeep Cherokee, and travel the world without ever having to worry about clocking in at work.

It wasn’t until high school that I really began to worry about finding something to do with my life, and even then it wasn’t a big deal. I was still living at home, spending most of my spare time running around town with my friends or talking on the phone. It became more of a consideration when I started looking at colleges.

On and off for most of my life, I had considered being a teacher. When I was young, I always made my little brother play school with me, and of course being the superior older sibling, I was always the head of the classroom. It sounded like a great career because I would get to have a captive audience, and I would get to buy new school supplies every year. Sometime during my senior year I think that I decided for sure. I must have just gotten tired of saying that I didn’t know.

As a freshman at Iowa State, it was nice to have decided on a major so I had an idea of what classes I wanted to take, and wouldn’t end up staying an extra year because my credits were in the wrong areas. I am lucky enough to be able to say I still want to teach English at the secondary level, but I am amazed at what people have to say about that.

I have had people tell me that teaching is a misled calling, and they can’t believe that I would want to deal with students in grades seven through twelve, because they are getting so much worse with every passing generation, as even adults with students in those grades now tell me that. It makes me wonder what kind of faith they have in their children, and think it must be awfully difficult for those children to excel in anything if the expectations are so low.

While I was in high school, many of the retired teachers spoke of how glad they were to be finished with their time in the classroom, so they didn’t have to deal with students my age. While I was in high school, I don’t recall anything shocking going on. Of course our fair share of fist fights occurred, and some teacher/student conflicts, but nothing that didn’t occur in the classes that graduated before mine. In fact, I think that my class had more successes than failures. Many of my classmates received impressive academic scholarships from colleges and universities; others were blessed with musical and dramatic gifts that drew great audiences, and others practiced endlessly to compete in assorted athletic events. As we get older, we are becoming an important part of society. We are joining the working world, living on our own, and making decisions that effect the future of our planet. As clich‚ as it is, we are, in reality, the future.

I resent often being viewed as a part of a generation that is lacking in discipline, work ethic and ambition. I don’t just sit around and wait for the world to revolve around me, and I don’t know anyone my age who does. In my daily life I work hard in my classes, I go to work on time and do my job. I don’t consider myself any better than anyone else, but I don’t consider myself any worse.

As a teacher I realize that I am not going to make millions, and that I may spend much of my time very frustrated. I think this is true with any job, and I just want to be happy with what I do. Every generation has their successes as well as their failures. The future generations are no different. They will be made of a diverse group of individuals who will change and improve the world that we live in. I wouldn’t call wanting to be a teacher misled, maybe just misunderstood. I will have the opportunity to meet and work with these future generations, and I can’t think of anything that I would rather do. That is, unless I win Publisher’s Clearinghouse sometime soon.

Laura Luiken is a sophomore in English from Webster City.