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I am born to Carolyn and Shawn Moran in Long Island, New York. Older brother Shawn asked when I was going back to the hospital once my parents brought me home.

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I begin preschool at South Shore Country Day School. My first day of school that year happened to be on 9/11. My father was an EMT in Brooklyn and the only reason he didn’t go to work that day is because I was starting Preschool.

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I begin Kindergarten at Charles E. Schwarting Elementary School. While I don’t remember much from kindergarten, I had two key memories pop into my head.

1)    While trying to walk perfectly to impress my teacher and be the star student of the week, I tripped and fell in front of the whole class and they all laughed at me for falling. Looking back I fully believe that was a starting point of my anxiety, and I became very shy.

2)    My teacher pulled my parents into a meeting because I was already reading at a 3rd grade level and she wanted to make sure they continued to push and support my reading at home. I read my first chapter book on my own the summer before 1st grade.

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I begin first grade. My teacher noticed that reading was not my only strength but also writing. She always said how creative I was and that one day she wouldn’t be surprised if she saw a book with my name in the by line. I took that praise and ran with it and couldn’t stop coming up with stories.

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I begin 3rd grade. This is the year my struggle and anxiety surrounding math became very apparent. Unfortunately this is not something I ended up overcoming as I got older. The math got harder and I understood less and less. I still cannot do long division to this day.

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I am in 4th grade. My music teacher has me compete in the NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) festival as a voice student. My scores are amongst the highest of Long Island and I am selected for the prestigious all county chorus. My parents finally realized that I didn’t have the same academic strength as my brother and let me really start diving into the arts, because that’s where I clearly shined.

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I perform in my first school musical, Honk! Jr. I didn’t know it at the time, but musical theatre and performance art as a whole became my escape from reality. I was excited to start middle school solely because of the drama club because all I wanted to do was be on stage.

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I start middle school. My math issues are getting worse, and my mom is keeping up with it through the wonderful invention of powerschool (grades getting posted online for our parents to see) as it’s happening. She calls me from work at least once a month to yell at me over my math and science grades. My brother never struggled with school and while I was excelling in English, Spanish, and history, I was not performing well, especially for their standards in my math and science classes. I start arriving at school early whenever my teachers offer extra help sessions. Those extra help sessions were the first indication that I learned better in a smaller group because large groups are rather overstimulating for me. Nothing comes of this revelation, but it’s eye opening to look back on now, especially after choosing the undergrad college I did, largely because of their small class sizes.

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I have the drama club director as my math teacher who I already had a great relationship with through the shows I had been a part of. Mr. Smith is the first math teacher I have that doesn’t view me as a lost cause in the world of numbers. He recognizes that I have severe test anxiety and helps me cope with it which heavily improves my test scores. He also let me retake exams I failed that he knew I was doing okay on the material for. His devotion to not only helping me academically, but also making sure I knew that my worth was not in a test score is a large reason why I want to be a teacher.

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I enter High School. I am enrolled in honors English class and my English teacher tells me I should think about majoring in English or something with writing. I also meet the choir teacher/drama club director Peter Lakes, who ended up being the most influential teacher I ever had. He encourages me and talks me down whenever I’m being too hard on myself. He takes the time to get to know me. He truly becomes a therapist, friend, and father figure to me and I spend all my spare time with him in the auditorium (his classroom). Without Peter I would not be who I am today. He is truly all that is good in the world of education, And I hope to one day be even half the teacher he is.

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I fail my first (and only) class ever, Algebra 2/Trigonometry in my sophomore year of high school. My confidence was destroyed, but my mother helps me laugh through it, as we already knew my chances of passing were slim, and my score on the state regents test was a 28 out of 100, so I really could not have done much worse. I take it the next year with a much better teacher and pass with a 78 out of 100.

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I tour Ithaca College for the first time as a perspective student, and immediately fall in love. I knew from the moment I stepped on campus that it was where I was meant to be. My parents knew it too just by looking at me. I’ve always been easy to read after all. I end up applying early action.

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I am accepted to Ithaca College! I accept the admissions offer and put down my deposit in January once my mother is confident I’ve thought about it enough, and am not acting on impulse.

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I graduate from Plainedge High School with an advanced regents diploma and am off to Ithaca College to major in journalism.

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I begin my freshman year of undergrad at Ithaca College, five hours away from my hometown, and one hour away from my older brother who is starting his senior year at Syracuse University.

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My mother suddenly passes away. I take two weeks off from school to be home for all the arrangements. I went back to school because I knew that is what she would've wanted me to do rather than stay at home doing nothing except thinking about her.

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Even with my mother’s death, an emergency wisdom tooth extraction, an emergency procedure on my knee, and having one of the worst cases of mono my university had ever seen, I finish the semester with a 3.4 GPA, just shy of making the Dean’s List. I’m still proud of all I accomplished against all odds that semester. I also decide once I return for the next semester to switch my major from journalism to screenwriting, wanting more creativity and freedom in my writing.

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I start interning for multiple companies in Los Angeles, as one of the only juniors chosen to do the senior-centric program. This is when I learned that while I excelled in what I was working in, that LA was horrible for my mental health and I didn’t belong there. I hold out hope that its the place thats wrong for me, and not the career (I was wrong).

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I decide to take a semester off in order start the Disney College Program at Walt Disney World in Florida as a character performer. I love every second of the program, which looking back, was a sign that working with kids is what always makes me happiest.

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I graduate from Ithaca College in a zoom graduation ceremony with a BFA in Writing for Film, Television, and Emerging Media. I still sneak onto campus to take graduation pictures while packing up my apartment.

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I finally land a job in the entertainment industry with Central Casting. This job causes my mental health to deteriorate in the blink of an eye, and finally shows me that the entertainment industry was not where I belonged, and never was.

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After quitting my entertainment job, I reach out to the director of the preschool I went to and camp I worked at every summer as a teeager to see if they were looking for any teacher assistants, even if my degree wasn’t in education. Due to everyone recommending me, she hires me for the upcoming school year.

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I begin working as a preschool teacher’s assistant. I quickly realize teaching is what I had always been meant to do, and I decide to start looking into graduate school.

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I’m accepted to the American University online MAT. Of course, this brings us to now, and I couldn't be happier with my choice.