Like many high-school-aged children, I took a vocational aptitude test that asked, "What would you like to be when you grow up?"  The page had multiple columns of possible career choices: firefighter, lawyer, metal worker, electrician, etc.  Everything you could possibly imagine.  I vividly remember my reaction upon seeing the option of "teacher.":

"Wow.  That would be the last thing I would ever want to do."

Also, like many at that age, I didn't have a clue and couldn't have been more wrong.

I chose the term "educator" rather than "teacher" for this role since it has a broader connotation that includes "mentor, coach, and advisor" and includes providing moral and social instruction in addition to intellectual education.  Educating others—informing them and helping them grow to become something greater—has been a joy throughout my life. 

I discovered the personal fulfillment teaching can provide shortly after becoming an employee at USAA Insurance in 1992.  I quickly learned my first role and became so proficient that I was asked to coach and mentor new hires who came on board after me.  The same thing happened in my second and third roles.  I was asked to show the new team members how things work and how to succeed.  It became a regular part of my repertoire in almost every role during my 30-year career with the company.

Having children is probably the most rewarding and fulfilling thing a person can do.  Once my kids became toddlers and began exploring the world in the mid-to-late 90s, I was challenged to learn anything and everything under the sun to answer every child's favorite question, "Why?" dozens of times each day.  While the public schools in their hometown were mainly adequate, I often found the need to expand upon (or correct) something the kids had been taught at school.  The need to educate them required that I learn and grow as well.

In 2012, I established the non-profit Psalm 119 Foundation to provide organizational structure and oversight for the educational work I and a handful of others were doing.  For more than a decade, we've created thousands of articles, studies, timelines, and other educational resources that are shared across a dozen different websites, each focused on a specific topic.

Whether at work with colleagues, at home with my children, or in my volunteer efforts, instilling the knowledge others have invested in me continues to be a delight.