My Passion is my Ambition towards Teaching.

Ever since I’ve had the ability to comprehend the English language, I have been utterly galvanized by it. I remember when I was just five years old, I would go to my grandparents after school on Tuesdays (the day my parents worked late) and I’d clasp my hand around my grandad’s arm and drag him into their garage. The garage was gargantuan compared to me who was tiny. The icy, concrete floor appeared dismal but the multi-colored chalks my grandad owned didn’t. They invigorated my fingers to detain them in my hands and doodle on the garage ground.

My hands made the chalk dance, and looking back, I feel bad for my grandad who I instructed to sit by me whilst I swirled the chalk, quilting the entirety of his garage floor. He would ask me what I’m writing, and I’d be chalking exactly what I learnt at school that day.

If I learnt what an adjective was, I would map it out and explain it to him again. He was the student, I was the teacher, and the garage floor was my demonstrative whiteboard. He must’ve listened to me ramble on for hours whilst he acted oblivious and shocked as I taught him. Every single Tuesday, whatever I learnt that day, I would reteach it to my grandad. I remember his delicate hand trembling as his arm lifted upwards to ask me a question.

It was always English I taught, as someone with Dyspraxia, (which is nothing like Dyslexia, it basically means I am scatter-brained with poor motor skills) – I have never comprehended Math. Contrastingly, I have always been mesmerized by the way writers can write to pursue an influence, expanding our thoughts through the expression of theirs.

A creative novelist can concoct a relationship with us, (readers) enforcing us to kindle an emotional attachment to fictional characters, entities created purely by pen, that is imprinted on us for a lifetime.

A writer could write twenty pages, describing the rusting doorknob in their office that is overlooked and twisted daily. Our language enables somebody to describe such doorknob as if it is a quintessence of a deep-rooted philosophy, as though it is a literal and metaphorical asset. Language can transform something from being disregarded, every day and ordinary – to something of colossal significance.

I’m forever fascinated by how punctuation changes everything too, which I saw a perfect epitome of this on Pinterest with these sentences:

• A woman without her man is nothing.

• A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Isn’t that incredible? The way that punctuation entirely dominates how language is interpreted has always amazed me. I find our language and its multitude eccentricities and foibles mesmerizing. Whilst having an invisible disability which will alienate me during my entire lifetime, English and writing has enabled and enables me to escape everything that plagues my mind. The passion I have for it courses through my blood and always has.

In the words of Joseph Joubert, French essayist: ‘To teach is to learn twice over’. For me, this quote exemplifies the powerful impact of teaching and with the education I have obtained and obtaining, I desire to expand my knowledge endlessly in English. Then, I will recycle my education to others and teach the inspirational value of the study.

I strongly believe that the subject possesses an overwhelming power; words alone have the capacity to manifest ideas that can impact the world. Look at the words of Martin Luther King, his words shaped humanity, bettering it.

Instead of a garage floor, a pack of chalks and my generous grandad who pretended to be my student, I hope to have my own classroom one day. I hope for a whiteboard teamed with its pen, which I can utilize to reteach what I’ve discovered to real students: the tremendous strength of words.