Why choose education?

For me the choice of the education tract was a logical one when thinking of getting my MSN because I am in my 8th year of  teaching nursing.  I should have done this several years ago but with kids and elderly parents that needed care, I didn't feel I had the time to dedicate to this and work full time.  I sort of stumbled onto nursing education by accident.  I never really thought about it as a career choice many years ago but when I relocated back to the valley I saw an add in the paper for a nursing instructor at a proprietary school in Weslaco.  I decided to apply and got the job.  It was really hard at first because I thought I had to know everything and didn't feel comfortable if I didn't .  I am sure I studied twice as hard as the kids the first year to brush up on the gaps in my knowledge base.  I had the feeling of being "thrown in" with little formal orientation.  Thank God for my informal mentors........the other faculty members that tried to answer my questions and reassure me as best they could.  After the initial 6 months I started to feel more at ease and knew I had found the thing in nursing I had always been looking for.  I loved being in the classroom and seeing their eyes light up when they understood something that was difficult.  I took a lot of pride in the pride that the students felt at bettering themselves and becoming something that they knew the whole world respected.  So I guess you could say that my students are my motivation for my following the education track in the MSN program.  I want to be more effective and my learning goal is to find better ways to teach that my students can understand so the next generation of nurses will be knowledgeable and above all caring.