As a child, I
loved pretend play. I was very curious about people I saw and looked up to in
our community. Some of my favorite games to play were doctor, house,
veterinarian, and teacher. I wondered what it would be like to be in each of
these professions, so I chose to act it out to the best of my ability.
Interestingly enough, when I first started college I explored each of these
career paths. In the end, I landed on teaching and I believe the games I played
and the hobbies I had as a child became my passions in life.
One of my favorite
games to play, as a child was “House.” I was the middle-aged mom who was
married to a doctor named, John. We had thirteen kids. Five of my “children”
were American girl dolls, two were bears I made at Build-A- Bear, and the other
children were mostly imaginary. However, sometimes my sister or friends could
play the part. My best friend had a family just as big and we would spend hours
on the weekends playing this game.
I was so into this
game that I cut pictures out of magazines and glued them into a notebook. I had
pictures of every room in our two-story house on the beach. I drew out a floor
plan for every level of the house and was as detailed as I could be. I included
rugs, windows, smoke detectors, and family placement at the dinner table. I cut
out pictures of our cars and labeled who sits where. I cut out pictures of each
family member and wrote their age, birthdates, personality, and career goals
below their photo. I cut out a photo of the front, back, and side of the house
as well as the garage. I cut out pictures of our play structure and the pool we
had in the backyard. It was very time consuming, but to this day I still have
the notebook and it is fun to look back on.
I didn’t always
play “house” with my imaginary family. Many times, I would get together with
other children in the neighborhood and we would divvy up roles and pretend to
be whoever that character was. One thing that never changed no matter who I
played house with was that I was always the mom or babysitter. Some people
preferred to be the baby or the little sister, but that was not appealing to me
because I liked to be the leader. This trait carried over into other games I
played as well.
Another one of my
favorite games to play as a child was “School.” I did not enjoy being a student
at school, but there was something fun about being the teacher. I would gather
my sister and a few of my closest friends to be the students. I would convert
our office into my classroom. We had a giant white board on the wall and a
basket full of markers just like at school. The room had a big desk with a
computer for me to do all my teacher stuff like grades, e-mails, tutoring, and
lesson planning. My mom worked at my grade school, so we always had an
abundance of student planners, lesson plan books, and textbooks that the school
no longer used.
I tried to set up
my classroom just like my classroom at school. Each of my students had a desk,
which was really just a cardboard box. I would set the desks up in rows, pairs,
and small groups. On the first day, I would put textbook materials as well as
name tags on each student’s desk so they were ready when the students walked
in. Once the bell rang (I used a bell from a card game), I would introduce
myself and have my students introduce themselves and share a hobby or two. I
would explain the rules of our classroom and my expectations of my students. I
had a laundry basket for my students to put their lunches in and I had a
classroom chores’ chart taped to the side of the white board.
Since my classroom
was set up just like a real classroom, I implemented the same discipline policy
we had at school. We were on a demerit system, which meant children had a card
with their name on it, the month, and week of the year. The child would receive
two warnings to stop or change their behavior before they would receive a
demerit, which was a hole punched in their card. Three demerits or hole-
punches led to detention.
As a child, I was
never in trouble at school. In fact, I feared doing anything wrong and the idea
of detention scared me half to death. This may have been because I was fearful
of punishment, disappointing my parents or teachers, I am not sure, but when I
would play school, I loved the troublemakers. In fact, I encouraged my students
to be bad, so I could give them demerits. I loved being able to keep my
students afterschool to yell at them, give them extra homework, and make them scrape
the gum off the bottom of the desks. To this day, I still have no idea what
goes on in detention, but I’m pretty sure my idea of detention is not accurate.
I think my
creativity, imagination, and sense of wonder came out when I played games like “House”
and “School” as a young child. I was also able to use my imagination and
creativity through scrapbooking. On my 8th birthday, I received an
American Girl scrapbook that was brightly colored and had a square shaped hole
in the middle for me to put a picture of myself. I of course chose my school
photo for that year, which was me hugging a Bulldog Beanie Baby. Beanie Babies
were all the rage that year. On the inside of the scrapbook I put pictures from
big events in my life that year: My cousin’s wedding, my family’s new car, and
the last day of school. I decorated each page with brightly colored paper and
mountains of stickers.
As of today, I
still scrapbook, but not so much for me anymore. Now, I create scrapbooks as
gifts for the people closest to me. For example, the last scrapbook I made was
for my mom on Mother’s Day. I took my favorite pictures of us over the years
and placed them in a small 5x7 book. Then, I printed out one hundred reasons I
love her. I took the photos and the words and turned the book into a collage.
She loved it and I know it’s something I’ll cherish even after she’s gone.
I have spent years
working on a scrapbook for a little girl I babysit that means the world to me.
When she was younger, I made her an Alphabet Book of things we had done
together. For instance, A was for Apple Orchard, M was for Mall of America, and
R was for Rainforest Café. Now that she is older, I thought I’d take the photos
I have of her and I and turn them into a real scrapbook for her golden
birthday. Over the years, I have written down funny things she has said. One
time, when she was two and we were at the Zoo, she told me I had hair like a
camel. I wrote down the entire conversation with her, and I plan on putting it
on the page with us in front of the Camels. I have also written notes to her,
quotes that remind me of her, and I have saved everything she has ever made me
or given me. This scrapbook has taken me years to complete, but the memories I have
with her are priceless. I know she will be so excited to have a book full of
our memories.
The older I became
the more I was able to define what my passions were. Children are a passion of
mine. Not only do I work with them now, but also I learned to care for and
value children at a young age through the games I played like house and school.
I learned to be compassionate, patient, and love them unconditionally. As I
became older, I realized I could take all of my interests, especially my
creative interests and love for children, and make a career out of it. I fell
in love with this idea, so I chose teaching as my profession. I will be able to
take my creative talents and engage young children in hands- on learning, and
make a difference in their lives.
**Essay
I wrote for school about childhood passions and values. I posted it on
here in hopes that you would learn a little bit more about me.
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