In the spring of 2001, I made a monumental decision to leave my job at a financial firm and enter into graduate school at The Ohio State University. Although I knew that a career in teaching was my calling, I also knew that I was leaving a rather lucrative field with unlimited monetary potential. There was a part of me that found the fantasy of working on Wall Street rather alluring, but even as a naïve, energetic twenty-something, I knew that I wanted to make a different type of contribution to society.

Then, September 2001.

In the days, weeks, and months that followed the devastation on that fateful day, our national dialogue included conversations about finding meaning in our lives and finding out what makes us passionate.  My decision to teach teenagers was solidified during that time.

After teaching in Columbus City Schools as a graduate student, and then beginning my teaching career fulltime at Bexley High School, I was offered a position at New Albany High School, my alma mater. Since 2004, I have taught Humanities, World Literature, American Literature, and British Literature. For the past five years, I have taught both American Literature and Honors 10, and I am now proud to be a managing director of New Albany Theatre. My students are amazing and I am so thankful to be a part of their lives as they mature and find their own passions! To shamelessly steal from the American poet, Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and…I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”