Riches

For those of you shying away from a career in teaching, there are many riches that you may not realize are to be found in this field:

• Water Bottles  left behind in your classroom at the end of the school year - most of the time these are never asked for after summer break!
• Starbucks Coffee Cards be ready to treat your friends and family to coffee, espresso drinks, and banana bread after final exams! 
• Reminders to do your attendance. These come at the generosity of the office staff. 
• Letters of Recommendation you will have 100s of these in your tool chest to whip up whenever needed for college, internships or Eagle Scout awards. 
• Current Teenage Verbiage - “time to lock-in”, “facts!”, “that’s sus”, “skibity toilet”, “clean” - write them down and reflect on your aging process over the years of slang traveling through your ears
• Periodic Tables - science teachers score here! Envision 100s of these babies lying around your house and classroom. Think about the wallpaper or collage potential.
• Calculators - oh yeah! Borrow 1,2,3 or more! Bring them home and tap away, make precise predictions of your grocery bill or make that a 15% tip at the restaurant instead of the 18, 20, and 22% buttons only offered on all of the cafe and restaurant check machines. 
• Bladder of Steel - you will see what I mean about this. You will develop this ability to feel no pain or sensation of needing to pee until you are just about to go to bed and realize something else needs to happen first.
• Steps - you won’t be planted in a desk. After circulating from table to table all day you will be a step monster! Impress all your friends with your mileage. Go ahead and splurge on that Apple Watch so you can know exactly how many steps you have accrued and be the envy of your step club.
• Reflections - of things you tried out that worked and didn’t work and all of the individuals who helped you see this over the course of the school year(s).
• Real People - real human beings you have a role in rearing and watch develop into citizens in our society. This one is kind of a big deal. 
• Occasional Run Ins - with those real people you supported when they were young who are now grocers, dieticians, mechanics, parents, athletes, teachers and caring individuals.  

So remember that riches are not only in the form of $$$$bling, bling, bling and teaching delivers more than you can count in your bank account!