Saved.

why I love.

Teaching
inspires me.
challenges me.
defines me.
betters me.
makes me.
teaches me.
knows me.

I am 11
driven, studious
a monitored attitude,
walking that predetermined path,
sheltered and blinded from all that was left unseen.

I am 17
good head on the shoulders,
ready to jump,
ready to find out what I've been missing

I am 20
this turning point,
faced with questions with no answers
running and falling,
infinite high-walled mazes

I am 22
teaching, teach, teacher
finally breathing fresh,
new waters to swim in,
treading carefully, learning the crash of the waves
then the suffocation,
friends into strangers
a lost soul in the urban landscape
but still, something so new
I hold on
the water carries me away

I am 26
new friends,
new knowledge,
still breathing fresh,
waters turbulent at times, but I know to hold out
teaching saved me
with its buoyant hold,
I ride into all of it
the fog lifts
and I see me
teaching, teach, teacher