Humbled

This is me in college. 

That's me on the far right with two very memorable faces from my days at BU.

English major. Dreamer. Career plans? Higher education. More specifically, literature professor. That's how much I enjoyed the professors I had at Belmont University.

Like this lady

or this lady.

But there's one English professor who had the biggest impact on me. 

This lady

Meet Dr. Monteverde. 

She's as dedicated as they come, and I took more than one of her courses - including an entire semester on the legend of King Arthur. Not only is she part my story of meeting Paul (we first met in her History of the English Language class), but she was a major voice in my professional journey. I like to think of her as my reality check.

I hadn't done any research on job prospects for literature professors. I just knew it meant a lot of school (which I loved) and reading a lot of books (which I also loved). But in a quiet session in her office, Dr. Monteverde sat across from me and shared her story, her path to becoming a professor, the sacrifices, the student loans, the uncertainty. Her approach was loving but direct. It's an awesome job, but it's a long hard road.

There has been a lot of in-between from that day in her office, and I did not continue in literature when I pursued additional education. Instead, that boy I met in her class married me and convinced me to go to law school with him.

We practice law. We have a house. We have a baby. We moved back to my hometown, where I started teaching at the local community college. It has been two years since my first class at Elgin Community College, but I am happy to report that they are taking me on full time.

It's official.

I'm a college professor. 

Sometimes our dreams follow us, just in a different form. 

p.s. I'm on top of the world! But not literally, like Dr. Monteverde is.