Do you ever wonder why teachers become teachers? For some teachers; teaching was a backup option, it was a money issue, and for some their dreams were shot down. For others; teaching was one of their first options, they love working with kids, or they just love to teach. But just like everyone else, teachers have passions that go beyond their classrooms. I went around asking teachers to share what they would pursue if they weren’t in education, and here’s what they said. 

Amy Wilson:

“I would want to be a singer, because when I was in college I was a vocal music major. My dad always said ‘what are you gonna do with that as a career, a vocal music major?’ and I thought “I don’t know” and so I gave up. But that’s what I would want to be ideally, a singer. Knowing my music taste when I was younger, I would probably choose to be a pop singer, but now I’m more into country.”    ’

Rebecca Dykstra:

“I would travel the world, because there’s so many interesting places to see and beautiful views I have not seen yet. I’ve already been to Israel, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Canada, and Ecuador. But I have a really long list of more places I want to visit. I would start anywhere in Latin America because I speak Spanish.”

Wendy Mullan:

“If I was not in education, I would be a forensic anthropologist. So basically I would just go to crime scenes and I would have to figure out clues to figure out a mystery. But the reason that I’m not is because I had a really abusive boyfriend in college and he told me I would never be able to become a forensic anthropologist.  So here I am, at the high school.” 

Ryan Burke: 

“If I were not a teacher I would probably be a personal trainer. It’s a job that I’ve done in the past, and I don’t think it’s radically different from teaching. You still get to work with a lot of different people and help them improve skills, in this case the skill would just be movement and athleticism versus things in the classroom.” 

Heather Thomas: 

“If I wasn’t a teacher I think I would like to be a meteorologist, because I love science. I love learning about weather and weather phenomena. Also, I think It’d be really fun to be on TV. I think if I had chosen meteorology over teaching, the hours that I work would be different, I probably would have started off working a lot more evenings and weekends. And probably not being on TV right away, if ever. So I think that hours and the days would have been much different. I also wouldn’t have been working with young people, and that’s really why I went into education was to work with young people and help them with their learning. So, ultimately I’m very happy I chose teaching instead; it’s a much better fit for me.”

Laurel Soto: 

“If I wasn’t being a teacher, I would love to be a freelance writer and write about popular travel destinations. So I could go check out vacation spots, write about all the fun activities I did, the food, the beaches, and things like that and hopefully get a free vacation out of it along the way. When I started teaching, freelance writing wasn’t really a thing back then and the college that I went to didn’t really have a journalism major. So, I initially went to be a journalist but then that wasn’t really an option at the school I picked so I switched to math instead.” 

Kelly Lyro: 

“If I were not a teacher I would be a lawyer, and I think I wish I would’ve gone to law school. I almost did, I almost applied to law school because I think that I could have found a really great and rewarding career as a family dispute lawyer or child protective services. I just have a lot of interest in making the world a better place, and I wish I had a little more control over that.”