How Teaching Others Has Made Me a Happier Person

I love playing video games, always have. I remember my mother used to tell me I won’t accomplish much in life if I keep on playing video games. I got upset because of her snarky comment and decided to become a professional in the video games industry instead.

My mother also used to tell me that if I keep skipping math class, I will never get my degree. I got even more so upset and I finished two universities and just recently became a Professor in video games (under 30!).

My mother isn’t alive anymore, so unfortunately she hasn’t seen me accomplish these things, but I am sure she would be proud. My mother was a teacher and a lawyer as well. She was a very accomplished woman.

I could not have asked for a better mother — she gave me exactly what I needed to become who I am — she was strict, she was needy and she always expected more of me because she knew I could deliver more.

I taught at various universities video games marketing, for me the key thing about teaching is that it's fun and that I learn more. I love seeing people get excited about learning.

It brings me joy when I see the class interact and discover something they had never thought of before. Getting a whole class to laugh simultaneously. Having people be validated by a class when they never had any validation before. Getting to discover new material as I prepare for a class. Forcing myself to get organised, to learn new things and deliver lessons in a coherent fashion.

I have discovered that teaching others can bring you a tremendous amount of pleasure, pride and sense of purpose as it gives you an opportunity to impact other lives. Knowledge is the greatest power you can have, and the most generous gift of all you can give someone is to share it.

Here are my reasons teaching others is one of the most rewarding experiences of all.

You will feel empowered by supporting others.

Many times I have heard students say “I don’t get it” or “This is complicated”.

You can help these students because all that they need is support and encouragement. You, as their teacher, need to help them see through their own potential and find out what works for them to learn best.

Everyone tends to learn things in a different way, and it is your task to figure out how these students will learn more effectively. When your students start breaking through their own insecurities and start to “get” things, they will be proud of themselves and that would become priceless to you.

You will celebrate your student's accomplishments.

I love how I can celebrate small accomplishments throughout the day and school year with my students. Some of them I've seen join great video games companies, or get other degrees and even launch their own companies. I am very grateful that in some way I was a part of the process to get them to where they are today.

You get to have a lot of fun and make new friends.

I always have lots of fun with my students. We are all of similar age (mid-twenties), so I can connect to them very easily. I have also become good friends with some of my students.

It was always an interesting thing for me to try and balance with my students when to stop being too approachable and be more of an authoritative figure because not every day we can just make jokes and play games (even though I am teaching them about video games).

It is important to find this balance with your students to make sure things don’t get too out of hand or noisy when there are serious topics at hand.

You can inspire others to do better.

I’ve realised that my confidence has grown massively since I have taught students. I’ve realized that I can inspire others just by being myself.

I inspired my students and motivate them to do their best. We all have the power to inspire others. You too can inspire others!

You inspire your colleagues to work hard when you work hard. You inspire family and friends around you to be positive, creative, and energetic when you are.

The above motivates me to be the best version of myself at all times because I never know who I am inspiring!

You can stay forever young.

Since becoming a teacher, I have learned so much about my creative potential. Now, it comes very naturally for me to set up my classroom, create engaging lessons and appealing resources. Being a teacher is being prone to change, being flexible and creative.

Being around students has also kept me young — even though I am young. I felt that in some way I still need to keep up with the student's trends and I just loved being surrounded by their curiosity and energy. It ensures that I always created new, different and interesting ways to share the information with them.

You teach, and that’s what matters!

I am not taking teaching for granted. I am very honoured by this experience to teach and I give it my all and enjoy it. Even though I am teaching the students about a specific subject, I strongly believe that I am teaching them more than that.

I am giving them my own life experiences and warning them of situations that I would not like them to experience. And I do so by simply being an amazing teacher who cares about what I do!

Most of us remember a teacher that really helped us or guided us along the way. While teaching involves a lot of hard work and sometimes extra work and planning, it’s an important position to hold on anybody’s life and one that you should be proud to have.

And I am very proud!

Thank you for reading, hope you liked my article!

This article was originally published by me here.