Dalton Schreiner

Connie Douglas
UWRT 1101
10/8/14
First Draft
Oral History: Why I Admire Mrs. Hicks
All through your life its about adjusting your dreams to where you are. Its not like you let go
of them, but sometimes your dream takes on a different dimension or you have to open your heart to
new dreams. This is the one thing that Amy Hicks told me and throughout my life, I havent heard
anything anymore true. I interviewed Amy Hicks, a high school bible teacher, and how she became a
teacher and more importantly about herself. The reason I wanted to know more about herself is
because I had her as a teacher throughout all my years in high school and even though in life my first
choice is not to be a teacher, but is to be able to someday be like her and have the heart for whatever
she does in life. Amy was born in South Carolina and now resides in the Charlotte area in North
Carolina. She puts on bible plays every fall semester and does an Evening of Entertainment every spring
semester with her classes.
Where and when were you born? I was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, July eighteenth
1964; but shortly after that, my dad was a preacher and we got a church change so we moved to Lake
Waccamaw, North Carolina where I would consider since I was there from a year and a half on to be
really my home because thats where I lived until I went to college. And I can say thats where you
grew up? Thats really where I grew up. I call Lake Waccamaw my home. Do you know anything
about your family name? My family name is Phillips and it has European roots. Are there stories
about its history? My sister does a lot of study with ancestry so she could tell you more of the history
behind, but we have, lets just say with my pale skin we have a little Scandinavian side, a little Scottish,
there is French on my dads moms side, but I just call it more of a European flavor. So are there any

changes to your name? Just once when I got married and so that is when I became a Hick. You
mentioned about your sister earlier, do you have any other siblings? I have one older sister and she is
two years older than I am, so basically our lives have intertwined quite a bit. We went to college at the
same place, overlapped for a couple of years and she went out to the work force and of course, I went
out to this area to start teaching but when my son was born, she moved back into the area and has been
off and on into the area for as long as I have. I came in 1986 to teach here and it was in 1996 since she
came and been in this area. Do you have any traditional first names you keep or nicknames in your
family? Well, yes a childhood nickname for me was Famous Amos because my name is Amy. I know
you heard me talk about Aunt Sarah who started the camp I work at and my parents which is why we
moved to Lake Waccamaw was so my dad can work with her at the camp, she called me Blondie. So
about your parents or grandparents, do you know how they came to meet? Not so much my
grandparents but I can tell you about my parents. My mom and dad ended up at the same college so
they met in college. My dad is originally from the eastern part of the state and my mom is from Ohio.
They both went to school in Columbia South Carolina and met on campus, and when they graduated
they got married and actually worked on campus together for two or three years. They then moved to
Spartanburg and then eventually moved to Lake Waccamaw. My mom and dad will be married 40 years
in May. Thats longer than I lived, which is a really long time when you think about it for people who
have been married and stayed together. Do you remember any special childhood memories? Or any
that you liked or impacted you in a certain way? Heres the interesting thing and would be interesting
as you see other peoples papers because I have a feeling about this. I really am a relational person, so
most of my memories from the past, are not like, I cant tell you a ton of childhood stories but I can tell
you about people who really meant a lot to me on the road in my life. I do remember people, Aunt
Sarah, who really was not an aunt by blood but more like a family member. She was probably the most
influential person in my life and I have a lot of memories of her in my childhood. She was probably

around grandparent age to me when I was growing up truthfully, so she is about fifty years older than
me. A lot of fun memories from her and she was a fun person. She taught bible, which is a big influence
on what I do today. I feel like a lot of what I learned about people and how to deal with people and how
I look at life was really impacted by her. I have great memories of the summer after camp she was by
herself at camp, her husband has died years before and she was single. She needed some company at
camp and we would go. She was an incredible story teller and I just remember dipping ginger snap
cookies into milk at night which was one of my favorite things to do and listening to stories with her.
Later I got older and I would travel around to places she would promote the camp, help her carry her
stuff and set up her slide shows and sleeping in crazy peoples houses where it was hot and we couldnt
sleep. She had a bible club that I went to for years as I kid that I went through till I went to college, being
around her was enjoyable so if I could pick one person that had a huge impact in my life that I have
multiple memories about it would be her from dipping those cookies, to going on family vacations
together, to just spending lots of time together. The other memories I would have as a kid would be
related to people who were working at camp, the biggest influence in my life. Even today at my age, I
still go back and volunteer for six weeks in the summer to give back to a place that has such special
memories to me. Did you have any pets when you were a child? I had lots of cats. We had dogs and
cats for as long as I can remember. We didnt really have any other pets growing up except dogs and
cats. As the case with cats, we didnt have them inside, dogs were inside, cats at one time had about
eighteen or nineteen outside, but thats because if you have one or two, three or four, others began to
take up at your house especially if you feed them. Also at about that time a cat disease came through
and wiped out the majority of the population. Thats another childhood memory I have when my cat
died and I had to crawl under the house to get her out and Im crying the whole but I wont get into
that. Do you have any pets now? I do, I have two dogs and used to have cats dont have cats
anymore. I had some different pets when I was becoming an adult. I had two prairie dogs one time,

Chip and Dale, they were pretty cool. Even today if I go to a zoo I can speak their language because I
learned to talk prairie dogs. I had birds and probably the coolest pet I had was a robin that we rescued
when it was a little baby and it lived for about a month. I dont know if we gave it the proper diet but we
feed it crickets. To watch them hunt a cricket, stalk it is really an art. They flip it up and jerk the head
off. They swallow the head then swallow the body its really incredible. I had a pet tarantula and a pet
rattlesnake. Watching how a snake stalked its mouse is rather interesting. We had chickens and
turkeys, but everything that has been at my house was never for any useful purpose rather than just
being a pet because it comes like family. So you had every pet pretty much? Well yeah I mean people
were getting rid of them thats how I got the snake. Most of our dogs have been rescue. I got a Boston
terrier from my husband on Valentines Day but most of the animals are rescued. Anything that comes
around me I cant bee cold and give the brush to. It warms its way into my heart. Today though I only
have two dogs, one inside and one outside. Off the pet topic and back to your childhood, did you have
any traditions at all? Well, yes. Obviously from me being a preachers kid a lot of traditions centered
around holidays, centered around the church, always at church. Im very tightly connected with church
people, they are like my family. If I was Halloween we would have a Halloween carnival at my church, if
it was New Years we were all together ringing in the new years, everything was intermeshed with that.
For me it was mostly the people that make it really special. Do you keep any of those traditions today
or have any that you have made? There are people like my best friend, everything is almost down to a
science the way they have everything. At Easter they are with this and after lunch they are with this side
of the family. It was never stressful, I dont come from a broken family so there wasnt any kind of stress
that way either. When I got married I got along with both sides of my family where we just ease in and
out of each others lives very simply, but if there is a tradition, its just spent with family and the spirit of
the holidays. I always try to make the tradition fit to where ever we are in our life. Life is about people
and about where you are. From your parents or grandparents, do you have any keepsakes or heirlooms

that you keep? The first person that died in my family was my grandmother and I have a ring that my
dad has given her. I dont know if it has any value or not but to me it is priceless because it was hers. I
have a piece of furniture from my other grandmother thats special and she had this gorgeous diamond
ring with multiple stones. After she died, my mom and dad had a ring made out of those stones for my
sister and one for me, totally different design. I have those two things that are pretty special to me and
mean a lot to me. Also with my dad being a preacher and me teaching the bible, he asked me of his
study books and just recently I got a couple of set of books that are important that tie the two of us
together. Do you have any special quote that you follow? I have a lot of things that I live by, but I
have a life verse and its Philippians 1:20 that says That in nothing I will be ashamed but that rather by
life or by death, Christ will be glorified in my life and that is a loose translation. That I wouldnt be
ashamed, and I live what I believe through my life and through my death. Getting out of all the family
and childhood information, when you were young, what did you ever dream of doing for your career?
Well, I didnt dream about being a teacher and I never dreamed I would be doing what I am doing
today, but in a sense I did. When I was a kid I had and still have a huge heart for people and so when I
was a kid around five I have decided I wanted to be a missionary somewhere over seas. I didnt know
what that would look like at that point but that did steer what direction I was going in. I went to a bible
college and honestly I thought that the training for mission work at that college was not really that
strong. But there was a bible teaching program that I thought even if I go do that I will be teaching the
bible somehow and it was a really good program. Then when I started student teaching I thought wow
this is pretty awesome I like this. To be a missionary with the people I wanted to go with I had to spend
two years in the United States doing it then go overseas and for two years I did this. Then after I asked
myself is it time to go? Finally after eight or nine years I stopped asking that question because I realized
its right now. This is where I am supposed to be and what Im supposed to be doing. All through your
life its about adjusting your dreams to where you are. Its not like you let go of them, but sometimes

your dream takes on a different dimension or you have to open your heart to new dreams. Your ability
to do that will determine your success in the future because nothing turns out what you thought it was.
What do you do now as a living? I am a teacher here at Central Cabarrus high school. And how long
have you been teaching here? This is my twenty-ninth year, coming close to that big three-oh and
started in 1986 in the fall. You said you went to a bible college and they had a teaching program, how
many years of education did you have to go for that? Well, I majored in bible so a four year degree and
my minor was in teaching bible. At the time, everyone was pretty stoked to get a college education. I
consider myself a lifelong learner whether its been with a degree or not. In some schools they dont
teach bible right? They dont how did you become a bible teacher here? Its very interesting on how
this program got started here. In our area, the rotary club started concord high schools bible program
sixty plus years ago and they funded it. There was a lady who was an English teacher here who had a
student in her class that committed suicide. It dramatically impacted her and she just wished she could
do something positive in the school, so she started thinking about it and having bible taught here to
have a positive influence. She worked in a community to get the funds raised for it and it came in place
four years before I started teaching here. For twenty-seven years it has become a full year program.
You said before you were involved in your church, have you ever thought about becoming a preacher or a
pastor? No, and I dont mean this in a bad way, but that is not where my heart is. I have been asked
since Ive been working here if I wanted to come be a youth director since I love working with teenagers
and I love teaching the bible it would be a perfect fit. Its just not where my heart is. I like teaching the
bible the way I have to teach it here. I like teaching it from a historical point of view and showing how it
impacted our culture and let people decide for themselves how they feel about it. I feel its more
respectful to have someone have an opportunity to choose, to teach people who would not normally to
get taught, for people to hear about it in a way not other people would be able to. These arent people
who wouldnt typically be in a youth group. This is kind of going back to my roots of going and living my

life in service in others for people who are not as familiar. I like the aha moment from when you are
sharing things. I feel it is a great opportunity and theres people who have been in church and know the
bible all their life and then there are students who dont know anything about the bible. It just brings a
fresh perspective to how they see it and how their thoughts are. Do you get paid like every other
teacher? I do and do you have any other ways of income? I do photography on the side with a
source of income and Ive been a motivational speaker somewhere. Since Ive had to teach and try to
raise my salary it doesnt allow a lot of extra time in between for extra time to get more money. So
what is the most rewarding thing about teaching? For me, its being able to share time and life and
ideas and thoughts with somebody else in your life intersecting. I can almost get emotional about this,
but to be able to teach something that you care about and to be able to share your life with other
people. Day to day life, not just what youre talking about necessarily but to share the high moments
with people, to share the low moments, to just be able to be a part of someones life. To be an
encouragement and help them along their path to feel like you enabled a person through
encouragement or something you taught or a concept to reach a next level in their life is hugely
rewarding and that your being here and can be a difference in somebody elses life and being a positive
thing is pretty cool. And what is the most challenging thing about teaching or that you faced while
teaching? The challenges are different and even how education has changed. And this will make sense
from what I just said, one of the challenges for me early on was just finding balance and not to be to
consumed with what Ive been doing because I wanted to do a good job from what I did. Probably the
biggest challenge though is to communicate really well. How to communicate and what is the best way
to motivate people on how to learn? Thats it. About your job, is there anything that you would want
to change about it? Im sure you can ask any teacher but sometimes the process about what is
expected from teachers. Things change so much and what is required of you changes so much. Theres
so many things put in place that you need to do what you need to be doing that takes away from you

being an effective teacher. It comes down to the question is teaching more of a science or an art? I
think that it is more of an art. Its not like I come in and you do this and step one, step two, step three
then youre done, but to me its more like what was the experience like? Does it challenge your thought
process? Did you enjoy it? To me, the experience of it creates an atmosphere where learning can
happen and thats an art. Its what you create, not just a tree on this art canvas but what is in the
background? What makes it highlight the tree? So if you could go back in time knowing what you know
now about teaching, would you still want to be a teacher? Oh by far because teaching for me is not
about the exterior stuff, teaching is about the interior motivation. I felt it was a calling for me, a
passion. If everybody can get to a place in their life that they find a job where they are passionate about
whether it pays money or not, do what you are passionate about and find a way to get paid for it. And
last, if you couldnt be a teacher, what would you be as a second choice? I have no idea about that
because as im coming to the point where Ill retire, that is whats in my mind. When I quit teaching,
what am I going to do? I mean I can sing, I can play guitar, Im good with people, but its what am I going
to do? I know I am going to be working with people until the day I die and Im going to be using my life
as a service to people till the day I die.
From the moment I walked into the interview, I knew it wouldnt be a professional interview but
it wasnt going to be a complete laid back interview. I also knew I wasnt going to be talking as much as I
usually do because I wanted to know about her since she is my all-time favorite teacher. There were
some spots where I did speak up while she was still talking but I stopped and made sure she said all she
needed to say until the end of the question. I am glad that I got to interview Mrs. Hicks because she was
the one who I knew Id miss when I left high school. I felt very prepared when I went in her classroom
after school so it was quite and just one on one time. The questions I asked got great responses in my
opinion and I know I am going to keep the interview saved on my phone so I can listen to it whenever I
need some encouragement or simply just miss Mrs. Hicks. Should I have had some better questions?

Possibly, but I felt great about the outcome of the interview. My ability to focus was on point because I
didnt interview someone that I didnt care about or took the easy way out and interview my parents, I
interviewed someone I care about and who I personally wanted to know more about.

Dalton Schreiner
Connie Douglas
UWRT 1101
10/8/14
Final Draft
Oral History: Why I Admire Mrs. Hicks
All through your life its about adjusting your dreams to where you are. Its not like you let go
of them, but sometimes your dream takes on a different dimension or you have to open your heart to
new dreams. This is the one thing that Amy Hicks told me and throughout my life, I havent heard
anything anymore true. I interviewed Amy Hicks, a high school Bible teacher, and how she became a
teacher and more importantly about herself. The reason I wanted to know more about herself is

because I had her as a teacher throughout all my years in high school and even though in life my first
choice is not to be a teacher, but is to be able to someday be like her and have the heart for whatever
she does in life. Amy was born in South Carolina and now resides in the Charlotte area in North
Carolina. She puts on Bible plays every fall semester and does an Evening of Entertainment every spring
semester with her classes.
Where and when were you born? I was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, July eighteenth
1964; but shortly after that, my dad was a preacher and we got a church change so we moved to Lake
Waccamaw, North Carolina where I would consider since I was there from a year and a half on to be
really my home because thats where I lived until I went to college. And I can say thats where you
grew up? Thats really where I grew up. I call Lake Waccamaw my home. Do you know anything
about your family name? My family name is Phillips and it has European roots. Are there stories
about its history? My sister does a lot of study with ancestry so she could tell you more of the history
behind, but we have, lets just say with my pale skin we have a little Scandinavian side, a little Scottish,
there is French on my dads moms side, but I just call it more of a European flavor. So are there any
changes to your name? Just once when I got married and so that is when I became a Hick. You
mentioned about your sister earlier, do you have any other siblings? I have one older sister and she is
two years older than I am, so basically our lives have intertwined quite a bit. We went to college at the
same place, overlapped for a couple of years and she went out to the work force and of course, I went
out to this area to start teaching but when my son was born, she moved back into the area and has been
off and on into the area for as long as I have. I came in 1986 to teach here and it was in 1996 since she
came and been in this area. Do you have any traditional first names you keep or nicknames in your
family? Well, yes a childhood nickname for me was Famous Amos because my name is Amy. I know
you heard me talk about Aunt Sarah who started the camp I work at and my parents which is why we
moved to Lake Waccamaw was so my dad can work with her at the camp, she called me Blondie. So

about your parents or grandparents, do you know how they came to meet? Not so much my
grandparents but I can tell you about my parents. My mom and dad ended up at the same college so
they met in college. My dad is originally from the eastern part of the state and my mom is from Ohio.
They both went to school in Columbia South Carolina and met on campus, and when they graduated
they got married and actually worked on campus together for two or three years. They then moved to
Spartanburg and then eventually moved to Lake Waccamaw. My mom and dad will be married 40 years
in May. Thats longer than I lived, which is a really long time when you think about it for people who
have been married and stayed together. Do you remember any special childhood memories? Or any
that you liked or impacted you in a certain way? Heres the interesting thing and would be interesting
as you see other peoples papers because I have a feeling about this. I really am a relational person, so
most of my memories from the past, are not like, I cant tell you a ton of childhood stories but I can tell
you about people who really meant a lot to me on the road in my life. I do remember people, Aunt
Sarah, who really was not an aunt by blood but more like a family member. She was probably the most
influential person in my life and I have a lot of memories of her in my childhood. She was probably
around grandparent age to me when I was growing up truthfully, so she is about fifty years older than
me. A lot of fun memories from her and she was a fun person. She taught Bible, which is a big influence
on what I do today. I feel like a lot of what I learned about people and how to deal with people and how
I look at life was really impacted by her. I have great memories of the summer after camp she was by
herself at camp, her husband has died years before and she was single. She needed some company at
camp and we would go. She was an incredible story teller and I just remember dipping ginger snap
cookies into milk at night which was one of my favorite things to do and listening to stories with her.
Later I got older and I would travel around to places she would promote the camp, help her carry her
stuff and set up her slide shows and sleeping in crazy peoples houses where it was hot and we couldnt
sleep. She had a Bible club that I went to for years as I kid that I went through till I went to college, being

around her was enjoyable so if I could pick one person that had a huge impact in my life that I have
multiple memories about it would be her from dipping those cookies, to going on family vacations
together, to just spending lots of time together. The other memories I would have as a kid would be
related to people who were working at camp, the biggest influence in my life. Even today at my age, I
still go back and volunteer for six weeks in the summer to give back to a place that has such special
memories to me. Did you have any pets when you were a child? I had lots of cats. We had dogs and
cats for as long as I can remember. We didnt really have any other pets growing up except dogs and
cats. As the case with cats, we didnt have them inside, dogs were inside, cats at one time had about
eighteen or nineteen outside, but thats because if you have one or two, three or four, others began to
take up at your house especially if you feed them. Also at about that time a cat disease came through
and wiped out the majority of the population. Thats another childhood memory I have when my cat
died and I had to crawl under the house to get her out and Im crying the whole but I wont get into
that. Do you have any pets now? I do, I have two dogs and used to have cats dont have cats
anymore. I had some different pets when I was becoming an adult. I had two prairie dogs one time,
Chip and Dale, they were pretty cool. Even today if I go to a zoo I can speak their language because I
learned to talk prairie dogs. I had birds and probably the coolest pet I had was a robin that we rescued
when it was a little baby and it lived for about a month. I dont know if we gave it the proper diet but we
feed it crickets. To watch them hunt a cricket, stalk it is really an art. They flip it up and jerk the head
off. They swallow the head then swallow the body its really incredible. I had a pet tarantula and a pet
rattlesnake. Watching how a snake stalked its mouse is rather interesting. We had chickens and
turkeys, but everything that has been at my house was never for any useful purpose rather than just
being a pet because it comes like family. So you had every pet pretty much? Well yeah I mean people
were getting rid of them thats how I got the snake. Most of our dogs have been rescue. I got a Boston
terrier from my husband on Valentines Day but most of the animals are rescued. Anything that comes

around me I cant bee cold and give the brush to. It warms its way into my heart. Today though I only
have two dogs, one inside and one outside. Off the pet topic and back to your childhood, did you have
any traditions at all? Well, yes. Obviously from me being a preachers kid a lot of traditions centered
around holidays, centered around the church, always at church. Im very tightly connected with church
people, they are like my family. If I was Halloween we would have a Halloween carnival at my church, if
it was New Years we were all together ringing in the new years, everything was intermeshed with that.
For me it was mostly the people that make it really special. Do you keep any of those traditions today
or have any that you have made? There are people like my best friend, everything is almost down to a
science the way they have everything. At Easter they are with this and after lunch they are with this side
of the family. It was never stressful, I dont come from a broken family so there wasnt any kind of stress
that way either. When I got married I got along with both sides of my family where we just ease in and
out of each others lives very simply, but if there is a tradition, its just spent with family and the spirit of
the holidays. I always try to make the tradition fit to where ever we are in our life. Life is about people
and about where you are. From your parents or grandparents, do you have any keepsakes or
heirlooms that you keep? The first person that died in my family was my grandmother and I have a
ring that my dad has given her. I dont know if it has any value or not but to me it is priceless because it
was hers. I have a piece of furniture from my other grandmother thats special and she had this
gorgeous diamond ring with multiple stones. After she died, my mom and dad had a ring made out of
those stones for my sister and one for me, totally different design. I have those two things that are
pretty special to me and mean a lot to me. Also with my dad being a preacher and me teaching the
Bible, he asked me of his study books and just recently I got a couple of set of books that are important
that tie the two of us together. Do you have any special quote that you follow? I have a lot of things
that I live by, but I have a life verse and its Philippians 1:20 that says That in nothing I will be ashamed
but that rather by life or by death, Christ will be glorified in my life and that is a loose translation. That I

wouldnt be ashamed, and I live what I believe through my life and through my death. Getting out of
all the family and childhood information, when you were young, what did you ever dream of doing for
your career? Well, I didnt dream about being a teacher and I never dreamed I would be doing what I
am doing today, but in a sense I did. When I was a kid I had and still have a huge heart for people and so
when I was a kid around five I have decided I wanted to be a missionary somewhere over seas. I didnt
know what that would look like at that point but that did steer what direction I was going in. I went to a
Bible college and honestly I thought that the training for mission work at that college was not really that
strong. But there was a Bible teaching program that I thought even if I go do that I will be teaching the
Bible somehow and it was a really good program. Then when I started student teaching I thought wow
this is pretty awesome I like this. To be a missionary with the people I wanted to go with I had to spend
two years in the United States doing it then go overseas and for two years I did this. Then after I asked
myself is it time to go? Finally after eight or nine years I stopped asking that question because I realized
its right now. This is where I am supposed to be and what Im supposed to be doing. All through your
life its about adjusting your dreams to where you are. Its not like you let go of them, but sometimes
your dream takes on a different dimension or you have to open your heart to new dreams. Your ability
to do that will determine your success in the future because nothing turns out what you thought it was.
What do you do now as a living? I am a teacher here at Central Cabarrus high school. And how long
have you been teaching here? This is my twenty-ninth year, coming close to that big three-oh and
started in 1986 in the fall. You said you went to a Bible college and they had a teaching program,
how many years of education did you have to go for that? Well, I majored in Bible so a four year
degree and my minor was in teaching Bible. At the time, everyone was pretty stoked to get a college
education. I consider myself a lifelong learner whether its been with a degree or not. In some schools
they dont teach Bible right? They dont how did you become a Bible teacher here? Its very
interesting on how this program got started here. In our area, the rotary club started concord high

schools Bible program sixty plus years ago and they funded it. There was a lady who was an English
teacher here who had a student in her class that committed suicide. It dramatically impacted her and
she just wished she could do something positive in the school, so she started thinking about it and
having Bible taught here to have a positive influence. She worked in a community to get the funds
raised for it and it came in place four years before I started teaching here. For twenty-seven years it has
become a full year program. You said before you were involved in your church, have you ever thought
about becoming a preacher or a pastor? No, and I dont mean this in a bad way, but that is not where
my heart is. I have been asked since Ive been working here if I wanted to come be a youth director
since I love working with teenagers and I love teaching the Bible it would be a perfect fit. Its just not
where my heart is. I like teaching the Bible the way I have to teach it here. I like teaching it from a
historical point of view and showing how it impacted our culture and let people decide for themselves
how they feel about it. I feel its more respectful to have someone have an opportunity to choose, to
teach people who would not normally to get taught, for people to hear about it in a way not other
people would be able to. These arent people who wouldnt typically be in a youth group. This is kind of
going back to my roots of going and living my life in service in others for people who are not as familiar.
I like the aha moment from when you are sharing things. I feel it is a great opportunity and theres
people who have been in church and know the Bible all their life and then there are students who dont
know anything about the Bible. It just brings a fresh perspective to how they see it and how their
thoughts are. Do you get paid like every other teacher? I do and do you have any other ways of
income? I do photography on the side with a source of income and Ive been a motivational speaker
somewhere. Since Ive had to teach and try to raise my salary it doesnt allow a lot of extra time in
between for extra time to get more money. So what is the most rewarding thing about teaching?
For me, its being able to share time and life and ideas and thoughts with somebody else in your life
intersecting. I can almost get emotional about this, but to be able to teach something that you care

about and to be able to share your life with other people. Day to day life, not just what youre talking
about necessarily but to share the high moments with people, to share the low moments, to just be able
to be a part of someones life. To be an encouragement and help them along their path to feel like you
enabled a person through encouragement or something you taught or a concept to reach a next level in
their life is hugely rewarding and that your being here and can be a difference in somebody elses life
and being a positive thing is pretty cool. And what is the most challenging thing about teaching or
that you faced while teaching? The challenges are different and even how education has changed.
And this will make sense from what I just said, one of the challenges for me early on was just finding
balance and not to be to consumed with what Ive been doing because I wanted to do a good job from
what I did. Probably the biggest challenge though is to communicate really well. How to communicate
and what is the best way to motivate people on how to learn? Thats it. About your job, is there
anything that you would want to change about it? Im sure you can ask any teacher but sometimes
the process about what is expected from teachers. Things change so much and what is required of you
changes so much. Theres so many things put in place that you need to do what you need to be doing
that takes away from you being an effective teacher. It comes down to the question is teaching more of
a science or an art? I think that it is more of an art. Its not like I come in and you do this and step one,
step two, step three then youre done, but to me its more like what was the experience like? Does it
challenge your thought process? Did you enjoy it? To me, the experience of it creates an atmosphere
where learning can happen and thats an art. Its what you create, not just a tree on this art canvas but
what is in the background? What makes it highlight the tree? So if you could go back in time knowing
what you know now about teaching, would you still want to be a teacher? Oh by far because
teaching for me is not about the exterior stuff, teaching is about the interior motivation. I felt it was a
calling for me, a passion. If everybody can get to a place in their life that they find a job where they are
passionate about whether it pays money or not, do what you are passionate about and find a way to get

paid for it. And last, if you couldnt be a teacher, what would you be as a second choice? I have no
idea about that because as Im coming to the point where Ill retire, that is whats in my mind. When I
quit teaching, what am I going to do? I mean I can sing, I can play guitar, Im good with people, but its
what am I going to do? I know I am going to be working with people until the day I die and Im going to
be using my life as a service to people till the day I die.
From the moment I walked into the interview, I knew it wouldnt be a professional interview but
it wasnt going to be a complete laid back interview. I also knew I wasnt going to be talking as much as I
usually do because I wanted to know about her since she is my all-time favorite teacher. There were
some spots where I did speak up while she was still talking but I stopped and made sure she said all she
needed to say until the end of the question. I am glad that I got to interview Mrs. Hicks because she was
the one who I knew Id miss when I left high school. I felt very prepared when I went in her classroom
after school so it was quite and just one on one time. The questions I asked got great responses in my
opinion and I know I am going to keep the interview saved on my phone so I can listen to it whenever I
need some encouragement or simply just miss Mrs. Hicks. Should I have had some better questions?
Possibly, but I felt great about the outcome of the interview. My ability to focus was on point because I
didnt interview someone that I didnt care about or took the easy way out and interview my parents, I
interviewed someone I care about and who I personally wanted to know more about.