I grew up in the small town of Powers Lake, North Dakota. My dad is a rancher, and my mom is a paraprofessional at the school I went to—where my sister goes now. I’ve wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I was always playing school with my cousins, and of course, I had to be the teacher! In high school, I started helping in the Kindergarten classroom as an aide, and that’s when I knew for sure that teaching was what I was meant to do. After that, I worked as an aide in second and fourth grade before graduating. I moved to Bismarck for college and started working at a daycare in a preschool. Then, I became a sub aide for Bismarck Public Schools, and now I’m an instructional aide in first grade at Grimsrud Elementary—I love it! My plan is to stay in the Bismarck area after I finish student teaching.