“I thought it was a mistake, but I was mistaken.”

My decision to be one of the people who mold the children’s bright future emerged when I was in Kindergarten. As early as 6 years old, I am already certain and decided that I want to be a teacher. That dream never faded, until I graduated from high school. Finally, when I was about to enroll myself in the Education program of the Ateneo, I was faced with a dilemma: what field of specialization will I choose?

            Since I like reading novels, appreciating how words were used in a poem, and because I hate Math, I have decided to take English as my major.

            During my first two years of study as an English major, there had been problems encountered and I successfully survived it all. I even became a dean’s list student. However, when I was already in third year, and started to make lesson plans and tasked to demo-teach lessons in English, I discovered that I have difficulties in teaching language and literature. I stutter while I teach, and I am not confident that I can answer all the students’ questions about my lesson. “I should have taken Biology, instead!” I said to myself. I even posted on Facebook that one of the greatest mistake that I’ve done in my crazy and happy life was when I chose to become and English major. Because we are not rich, I don’t have a choice but to continue to study and to teach English. I carried this problem every day as I enter higher English and Literature classes. Being English major was a burden on my part as student teacher. One day, the students of mine inspired me to love and accept my course. On that very day, I have learned to love and accept my major.

            My students in City High do not belong to the honor’s class. Instead, they belong to the greater majority in the general section. When my cooperating teacher gave them a reading activity, some of them, unfortunately, have difficulty reading. Others know how to correctly pronounce words in a text, but do not understand what they have read. This struck me most, because I know that one must be fluent in oral and written English to survive in the modern world. They must be taught the proper ways of reading, and help them comprehend the English language as soon as possible.

            Because of that incident, my students became my inspiration in doing my reading program in our Remedial Instructions subject. The fire of determination inside me rekindled, and I became more and more enthusiastic. I realized that it was really God’s plan to be an English major because there are a lot of learners who really need my help.