Living without a Bucket List
About twelve years ago, back in high school, I was in the National Honor Society and started tutoring in our academic resource space. I have vivid memories of helping one student, one in the Special Education program, understand special right triangles for her geometry class. A year later, during my Freshman year, I helped run one of the Boston area SAT prep programs run by Let’s Get Ready. During a semester off, my high school guidance counselor asked me to tutor a few of his current students who needed extra academic support. It was then, seeing myself as a young adult rather than a student, that I saw how much I loved teaching. Whoa.
Suddenly my own education made sense. You have to learn to teach, and as you teach you continue to learn. It was like a magical and beautiful cycle. Starting then, back at college, I never stopped tutoring or TAing. It was usually math or science, but I started to branch out. I found myself learning new topics, studying new things, so that I could help others learn to appreciate them.
When I graduated with degrees in physics and computer science, I was torn between becoming a teacher, something I knew I loved, and becoming a software engineer, an adventure I knew much less about. I became a physics and chemistry teacher and, long story short, realized after three years that I actually preferred tutoring. With tutoring, you can always be on the student’s team. There isn’t much “classroom management” and you can be a constant cheerleader for the student, one-on-one, without twenty-nine other students needing your help at the same moment.
I like to explain my switch from teaching because teachers are rock stars, teachers are gifted and talented beyond what people realize, and I just wasn’t sure I could handle being superhuman (like all of the teachers I know) for my entire career. After this, I knew tutoring was something I couldn’t give up, even when I took a chance and went into software. I knew I couldn’t just let that passion fall into the past.
I’m not a “bucket list” type of person. In my opinion, nothing could be more stressful than holding potential and far off goals over my head, always taunting me. Maybe that’s just incredibly pessimistic, but it’s never appealed to me. If I had to have one, though, it would simply be to continue to build a happy and fulfilling life. I feel that I have achieved and continue to grow this dream. Still, if pushed for concrete goals, I would have listed two things: get a master’s degree and grow TriTutoring into a “real” business, whatever that means.
2020 was a tough year for all of us, and I recognize that it was a lot harder on others than it was for me, mentally, physically, financially… the list goes on. All that I did last year happened because of my drive and determination to make something of the year, to celebrate the person I have become, and to reach for my invisible and unwritten dreams. At the same time, all that I did last year happened because I was privileged enough to work towards these goals in a year unlike any other.
In January 2020, I started a program for a Master’s in Software Development through Boston University. In May 2020, I became an LLC and brought on my first independent contractor as a tutor, starting with a friend-of-a-friend who I trusted to join me on the beginning of this project, a risk I had never been brave enough to take.
Go, Terriers!
Here we are, eight months later, with seven amazing people actively tutoring, bringing my dream to life, and fourteen active students learning, keeping it fun and making it worth the work. So, for those who have wondered and for those who have not wondered, here is the full story of my adventure with TriTutoring… so far. TriTutoring is an ever evolving goal, an ever changing dream, and I thank you for being a part of this journey with me.