Kira Dodd

Middle School Theology

“When I was little, I wanted to be an architect and a marine biologist. When I started to get serious about what I wanted to do, I was here in high school and my favorite class was art, so I thought, ‘How can I turn that into a career?’ My mom was, and still is, a graphic designer. So I thought ‘Ok, I’ll be a graphic designer.’ I applied to college art programs. I got into a lot of places that I was happy with. I went to the University of Houston and took art classes, [but] I just wasn’t feeling it.

All through this time, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I would take these career aptitude tests. They ask a whole bunch of questions about your interests and then they produce a list of careers, and the top are the ones you’re most suited for. Every time I took one of these tests, a teacher was always at the top. I always thought ‘I don’t wanna be a teacher, [they] don’t make any money.’ I kept taking my psychology classes and I was like ‘Oh but you can’t really do anything with a psychology degree, so what am I actually gonna do?’ Then I was like ‘I know! I’ll go to medical school. They make a lot of money.’ So then I took this class that you have to take if you want to go to medical school called organic chemistry. I did not do well; I got a C. That just wasn’t the perception I had of myself, so I knew that if I tried harder, I could just do better. I re-took the class and ended up getting an A, but I lived at the library. I then had a lightbulb moment where I was like ‘Wait a minute, I know I can do this. I know I’m smart enough.’ But I was not having fun: I never saw my friends, I never saw my family, I never saw my boyfriend. So if this didn’t make me happy, then it’s probably not going to make me happy for four plus years of medical school. I decided to ditch that because it sucked.

I really liked the idea of medicine, but not medical school, so maybe I could be a nurse? I tried calling the school that was going to certify and train me to be a nurse, but nobody would ever answer my call. I did enjoy my job teaching people how to take the SAT, so I thought, ‘Maybe I should be a teacher?’ This was one of many obvious God moments in my life where the Holy Spirit was pushing me to do something. I found a place that could certify me to be a teacher, so I called and they responded within seconds. They told me all the information I needed to know, and they would help me get a job. I got my first job at a middle school, but I was only there for a year and a half before I decided, ‘I wanna do this for the rest of my life.’

I went to an alumni event here at Duchesne before I worked here. I saw Mrs. Carter at the alumni event. When she saw me, she asked me ‘What are you doing now?’ and, I told her that I was a teacher. She said ‘Do you want a job here?’ and, I asked what subject I would be teaching. She told me ‘Oh well the only job opening here is in religion’ and I thought ‘I can’t do religion I can’t teach religion I’ve been teaching science I’m a science teacher’. She told me that I would like it so, I applied. I taught my sample lesson and was hired. I didn’t know if I could do this but I did it and I liked it. When Mrs. Fluche left the science Department Mr. Houle asked me ‘Do you want to be a science teacher?’ and surprisingly I said no because I liked teaching religion so much. The signs were always there and I was just ignoring them because I was extremely stubborn and thought that money was important. Money is nice but it’s not everything.”