Where Calling Met Purpose
When I graduated from high school, I was certain I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
I wanted to be a band director.
Music had been an important part of my life, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I enrolled at the University of Tennessee excited to spend my life helping students experience the same joy I had found in marching band and pep band.
Then reality had something to teach me.
I loved the energy of marching band.
I loved pep band.
I loved being part of a team working toward something bigger than ourselves.
What I didn’t love was every other part of being a band director. Teaching beginning instrumental students wasn’t where my heart came alive, and I slowly realized that I loved the community music created more than I loved teaching music itself.
Not long after, I found myself academically dismissed from college.
At the time, it felt like one of the biggest failures of my life.
Looking back now, I see it differently.
It wasn’t the end of my story.
It was simply the beginning of a different one.
Life Had Other Plans
Life moved quickly after that.
I got married.
We bought our first home.
Our daughter was born.
Like so many people trying to find their place in the world, I worked wherever opportunities appeared. I spent time working in formalwear, pharmacies, and even a short season doing secretarial work. None of those jobs looked anything like the future I had imagined, but each one taught me something about people, relationships, and serving others.
Eventually, I knew it was time to finish what I had started.
I returned to the University of Tennessee convinced that elementary education was where I belonged. I was accepted into the teacher education program, and once again it felt like life was falling into place.
Then life interrupted again.
During my pregnancy with our son, complications made it necessary to step away from school once more. His first year brought its own medical challenges, and while I wouldn’t have chosen that season, it gave me something unexpected: time to reflect.
By the time I was ready to return, I had realized something important.
Elementary education wasn’t where I was being called either.
Finding Purpose in Unexpected Places
I returned to school with an entirely new direction.
This time, I completed my degree in sociology before earning a master’s degree in criminal justice.
For a while, I believed my future would be in the juvenile justice system. I wanted to make a difference for young people whose lives had taken difficult turns. I believed I could help change their futures by working within that system.
Then another unexpected door opened.
Instead of working in juvenile justice, I was given the opportunity to teach criminal justice courses at a community college.
I taught classes in juvenile delinquency and global terrorism.
And something clicked.
For the first time, I realized that what I loved wasn’t simply the subject matter.
I loved helping people think.
I loved asking questions that didn’t have easy answers.
I loved watching students wrestle with difficult ideas and leave class seeing the world differently than when they walked in.
Somewhere between lesson planning, classroom discussions, and conversations with students, I realized I wasn’t just passionate about criminal justice.
I was passionate about teaching.
Looking Back
For years, I thought my story was full of detours.
Today, I think it was full of preparation.
Every major I changed.
Every time I left school and found my way back.
Every job I accepted.
Every unexpected pause.
Every one of those experiences gave me something I carry into my classroom today.
They taught me empathy for students whose paths aren’t linear.
They reminded me that life doesn’t always unfold according to our plans.
Most importantly, they showed me that purpose is rarely discovered all at once.
Sometimes it quietly reveals itself one unexpected step at a time.
When I finally realized I loved teaching, it wasn’t because I had found the perfect subject.
It was because I had finally discovered the place where curiosity, relationships, and the desire to help others grow all came together.
And I had a feeling I was only getting started.