So I’m gonna get a little sappy here for National Teachers Day because I think it’s worth getting sappy about. I’ve been blessed with a lot of great teachers in my life, but if I had to pick the one who has had the biggest impact on my life, it would definitely be Jean Clark, my middle school Challenge teacher. I still have my “Jean Notebook” full of papers from the classes I took with her. She taught me to love Shakespeare, gave me my first (and only) real lessons in drawing, helped me to understand the different ways that people learn and that I wasn’t stupid just because I didn’t learn like the other kids (she even had me write a song about multiple intelligences, which two of my classmates performed for a video we made). She taught me about writing, philosophy, and building bridges, that if you’re going to be great, you’ve got to be humble, and that words have power so learn as many as you can. When I start to doubt my decision to become a teacher, I think of her, and I think that if there is a chance that I can impact even one kid the way that she impacted me, then I have to do it.