When people ask why I became a teacher I have quite the story to tell. Yeah, there were some inspirational and motivational teachers in my junior and senior high school. I am a teacher much like the one’s who inspired me to want to be a teacher. But I have to say where it all started for me was back in the summer of my 7th grade school year I was out looking for mowing jobs and stopped at a house not too far from where I lived. I approached the house with reluctance as it was a new couple and I heard they were the new pastors at the local Lutheran Church. They gladly accepted my offer of mowing the their lawn and I spent my summer mowing grass and getting to know Pastors Arvid and Kim. They convinced me to attend confirmation classes, of course I knew all the kids, however they were a year younger than I was. But I attended and it honestly changed my life forever.I was not from a family that was “churched” and we were one of the families that lived on the other side of the tracks. We had no money and lived in high poverty. Post secondary was out of the question and military or factory work was in my future.It was Pastors Arvid and Kim who inspired me to want to go on to become a teacher, while in high school they gave me a chance to be a Sunday School teacher and serve on the church council, attend summer camp (where I later went on to serve as a camp counselor for 11 summers). I did attend a Lutheran College for two years, transferred to a college closer to home and where I got a job as a youth director and upon graduation from college was hired at a local middle school where I still teach.It often times takes a caring adult who believes in you to help you make you believe in yourself, that’s what Pastors Arvid and Kim did for me.