Formal teaching has been the shortest period of my 63 year lifespan. I believe, however, that teaching has been an integral part of me as long as I can remember. I mentored younger “ kids” when I was a kid; was a BSA Scoutmaster and trainer for 15 years, taught Sunday School and raised two children before I entered a traditional classroom setting. Becoming a formal teacher happened quite accidentally. I was completing a long term substitution position and was approached by a well-respected teacher at the school who asked me why I wasn’t teaching full time. As I thought more about her question, I realized I was teaching, just informally. So I entered a Lateral Entry certification program. Entering the classroom as a new teacher in my forties, I was scared and excited; nervous yet amazingly calm; and overwhelmingly confident I was where I needed and wanted to be for the next phase of my life. Since then, I have completed the RIPELL program to be prepared for SIOP inclusion classes and worked on a master’s degree in GeoSciences. Twenty years later I am still excited by and loving my students and the material I am sharing with them. I am constantly inspired by my students; you know them, they are ones that everyone else has written off as incorrigible or uninterested. In my eyes, they are hidden gems; the discoverers of new medicine or climate warriors for our planet. They fuel my desire to better myself, by constantly learning new content and by developing understanding to empathize versus sympathize. I teach to develop educated, global citizens, but I teach as much for what my students teach me daily. In my other life, I am a wife of 43 years and a mother of two sons who also inspire me daily by the shear fact that in their thirties they gave up jobs as officers in the military to pursue dreams which they had fostered since childhood. Each of my sons is graduating in May; one from law school and the other from nursing school. I am a participant in and facilitator for iEARN (The International Education and Resource Network) and have recently been asked to write lesson plans to accompany video exploration and be on the Board of Directors as the education representative with Projectexplorer. I coach and keep myself active both physically and culturally by travelling and teaching through grants I have received. Through it all, I do not see retirement in the near future. Why is that? I must fulfill the promise I made to multiple students to be at Lincolnton High School to educate younger siblings and honestly I still love what I do.