Teaching LOVE

Teaching is really a labor of love. That is why a few years back when my hubby advised me to go back to teaching I hesitated. Deep inside I know that I have a calling for the academe but I thought I was not ready for it... Just imagine all the hard work I had to put to it. Preparing the modules, powerpoint presentations, talking points, examples and even reading the reflection papers and checking exams one by one. To add to that the requirements of PhD, publication, research and community engagements. And, the emotional preparations you have to put up to keep the discussion flowing, not bore your students, disappointments, "favorites", impatience... etc.

Maybe it is really the "mom" in me why I am now in the academe and surviving it one day at a time. Every time I seem at a lost, I always look at my students and think that soon my girls will be like them and they need someone to guide them not just in terms of their academics but how to approach life.

I really don't ask much. Yesterday, I got a note from our brother president that I got a salary increase. That's great. But at the end of the day, its really the love and respect that my students are giving me that keeps me going. Its the thought that when it is my girls' turn to be students (hopefully in DLSU:-)) they will also encounter someone who will really care for them.

Maybe, I am in the academe caring because I had teachers who really cared for me back then... To my School of Economics and Development Studies program professors, maraming salamat! Special mention na lang kay Ninang Cristela Goce Dakila. Yes, I will survive my PhD:-)