the value of teachers

people don't look at their macbooks or iphones and say, "i wish steve jobs didn't work 12+ hour days." and i'm no steve jobs, but i'm tired of people telling me to stop working so long at school and, basically, to get a life. life is this journey around the sun that begs you to give those trips meaning. for some, that's having kids or finding a life companion, but for me, it's the legacy i hope to leave through my work. this priority may change if/when i decide to have kids and/ find a life companion, but i am perfectly happy with leaving my own, personal mark that i made with my own blood (i'm clumsy), sweat (the a/c at school doesn't always work), and tears (i have issues). i can't help but to wonder how much of people's well-intentioned, "get out of your classroom/it's terrible that you work so hard," has to do with the fact that i'm a woman and am "wasting away my youth" not finding a man or bearing children. but i'm a little busy, because i happen to have exactly 186 of them this year. or maybe it's because i'm not inventing the next iphone. but i promise you, if i do this right, what i'm making has the potential to be so. much. better.