One Little Thing

It was the end of May 2017, when I overheard my father tell my mother that the medical
tests he had done were pointing to a diagnosis of cancer.
My heart stopped, my muscles tightened, and my body froze at the thought of my dad
possibly having cancer. Fear washed over me that I had never experienced before, and I knew
my life was going to change forever.
Nine months later, on February 24th, 2018, I lost my father to metastatic pancreatic
cancer. It was now up to my mother and me, to maneuver our way through the greatest
challenge life had ever thrown at us. This strange and unfamiliar period of my life caused me to
reflect on the fifteen years that I had with my father. Some of my fondest memories took place in
the kitchen baking cookies all afternoon or learning a new recipe for family dinners. I can still
hear the gears on his bike turning as I saw him ride off on his beloved mountain bike rides, or see
the sweat dripping down his face as he added a new vegetable bed to our family garden. Along
with these many passions, I will always remember his life’s purpose -- his own construction
business that he started ten years ago.
​It was at one of his construction sites where I first discovered my own passion: teaching.
I remember sitting with my friends waiting for my dad and his employees to finish work for the
day. All they had left to do was spread out some wood chips, I remember my dad telling us that
we needed to work as a team to spread them out and make the job faster. The memory of that day
is something I will always cherish. At this time his company was building a playground for a
school for Navajo students. As I thought about the impact that playground would have on so
many children, I felt a rush of pride in my dad and realized I wanted to make an impact in my
own work of becoming a teacher.
It is crazy to think that I chose this path given my own start to education. When I was in
4th grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia. I struggled and I wasn’t getting the support I needed, I
realized if I was going to do well in school, I needed a change. In 6th grade, my family and I
moved to Durango, Colorado. Durango was where I discovered and attended the Liberty School.
The Liberty School is a private school that devotes their time to their students with dyslexia.
Being at a new school introduced me to a whole new way of learning, and helped me gain an
appreciation for the power of a good teacher that would further inspire my passion to give back
as a teacher myself. The Liberty School inspired me so much that I entered my Junior year of
high school having the opportunity to complete a three-week internship at the very place that had
taught me so much.
The internship at the Liberty School helped my leadership skills grow by stepping up
and putting my voice out there. During my internship, I was a student-teacher that helped teach
new math ways to do differential equations and I got to help the writing students write their
essays. After my internship was completed, I was asked to return as a summer tutor for one of
the students. Lacy a 5th grade who was severely dyslexic. Her parents and teachers were
concerned that she was going to regress over the summer. I worked with her once a week and
helped her maintain the level she achieved by working on reading fluency, math, and spelling.
Like Lacy, I choose to not be defined by the challenges that I faced in my youth but the
mark that my father left on me which was a passion to help others. He gave me the strength and
perspective to pursue a career that I am passionate about. My father always taught me a strong
work ethic, and to go after the things you want in life. I am confident in the career path I choose
and I am excited to see what the future holds.