In life, we are always taught to follow our dreams, and we look to icons in our society. When it comes to actually having dreams and aspirations, many people have enormous ones.

One kid may be interested in becoming a millionaire with a big family, a big house and nice cars. While another kid’s dreams are just to be successful wherever it is he/she may end up. Success is different for each person. Many icons that we see in our society who radiate these particular traits and deeds are the teachers around us. Most of them didn’t plan on teaching high school students while others did.

“I wanted to be a coach for girls sports,” math teacher Becky Kilgore said. “Back in 1979 when I began teaching, girls sports were becoming a big deal. Most of the people around me coaching were either math teachers or social studies teachers, I just so happened to choose math, and I’m glad I did.”

A key factor of following your dreams is including your passions. Many people around us expect us to come out of high school with our life all planned out, and some people do have a step-by-step process plan.

What about the rest of us?

It is completely okay to leave high school with the idea that you want to be a lawyer, and then years later, you realize law isn’t for you but maybe a nice doctor’s office would better suit your lifestyle.

There are millions of passions here at Ben Davis. There are students who love to cook, sing, dance, work with children, focus on dentistry, nursing or cosmetology just to name a few. The truth is, some of those students will follow those paths and their career will be based around that passion, but others may decide they like to read instead, so they’re going to be a librarian instead of a musician.

“I love seeing that light bulb go off when a student ‘gets it’. I always focus on the positive aspects of why I became a teacher on my bad days,” former Ben Davis early childhood education teacher Stephanie Ries said.

Follow your passions, and if they so happen to change along your path of success, then so be it. As long as you love what you do, and how you do it, that’s all that matters.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius