1. When people comment that the job is “so easy,” you immediately raise an eyebrow and ask them how they’d feel about wrangling 20-30 kids on a daily basis, and not even just keep them under control, but actually teach them something.

2. Your version of “playing pretend” when you were a kid was setting up a classroom somewhere in your house and making your stuffed animals/friends/parents/neighbors come and be your students.

3. You still walk around and see cute things and think “that will go in my classroom.”

4. You know it’s a tough job, and you know it’s a dirty job (sometimes literally) but you also know that the satisfaction of walking away having honestly changed a kid’s life is more than worth it.

5. You kind of don’t think you’d be able to function without a summer vacation, so.

6. You’ve always lost your mind over “teacher stores” and other craft places, and are stocking up on scented markers and stickers and pencils and things.

7. You’ve been practicing “grading” things for years, polishing your star-making abilities, because for some unbeknownst reason, there are few joys greater than excessively marking up a paper.

8. You actually do care about those little shit head kids, no matter how frustrating they can be.

9. You have an affinity for blue fun tack and laminating things.

10. You almost don’t know how to read something without needing to turn it around so everyone else can see it or pause and say “what do we think is going to happen next? Let’s predict, boys and girls.”

11. You’ve perfected your “I’ll wait” facial expression.

12. You’ve always know you were going to be a teacher, there were no other plausible options.

13. You’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time wondering how your last name would sound as a teacher name, if you’d be Ms. or Miss if you’re a woman, if you’d take your married name if and when the day comes, etc.

14. If you ever got the chance to student teach, you were grateful for the experience, but kind of spent the whole time like “let… me….. do…….. MORE.”

15. You have, by demand, had every social media account on public lockdown, have used your first and middle name as your profile name and know that no photo is safe in the world of education.

16. You’ve been stocking up on “teacher clothes” and no vest or holiday brooch is off-limits.

17. You understand that there is loving kids and then there is loving kids so much that you honestly want to be around them all day and deal with their issues and teach them things and watch them grow. You are the latter. You are a teacher.