The document is a reflection by a teacher named Mayank on why teaching is a meaningful and fulfilling profession. Some of the key points made are: 1) Teaching helps students achieve success and improves their self-image, which allows the teacher to feel like they are transforming individuals and building a better society. 2) Working with energetic students rubs off on the teacher and recharges them, while also allowing the teacher to constantly learn from the students. 3) Finding meaning in one's work, no matter the profession, is important for growth and happiness. Mayank takes pride in his role as a teacher and finds it a lucky and rewarding career.

1. Hi
I’m Mayank
and I teach for a living.
mayank batavia

2. I’ve been teaching for eighteen years now.
not your fault.I know...
mayank batavia

3. I’ve never doubted
if it is really a noble profession.
mayank batavia

4. Is it meaningful?
Am I contributing to the society?
Never occurred to me asking these questions...
mayank batavia

5. But last Saturday was different…
mayank batavia

6. At the check-out line at Tall-mart,
I overheard a guy tell his wife
his job was pretty much pointless.
Meaningless.
(Whatever.)
mayank batavia

7. mayank batavia

8. I was never delusional that my work was exactly
ROCKSTAR stuff.
mayank batavia

9. At the local club meets, people would say their
job was to:
- invent drugs to cure illnesses,
- write code to improve ISRO and NASA,
- design James-Bond worthy automobiles...
mayank batavia

10. And I was teaching
dangling participles,
split infinitives,
remainder theorem...
Ho-hum. Yawn.
mayank batavia

11. Teaching language and grammar
isn’t quite the same
as building a better world.
mayank batavia

12. My friend Taksh has improved the lives
of countless slum-children….
>---<O (that’s me doing a tribal bow-down)
mayank batavia

13. Or the famous Amte father and son,
both Magsaysay awardees…
mayank batavia

14. Or even my friend KB who designs cool ads and
travels to exotic locales.
Hate him.
mayank batavia

15. But Grammar, of all things?
Sounds ungreat.
Forget great, it’s not even glamorous.
mayank batavia

16. Oh no, it’s not that I’m suffering!
I so very much l ve what I do.
Honest.
mayank batavia

17. It’s always a challenge. It’s fun too.
Like when my students forget “fish” has got two
plural forms.
mayank batavia

18. But how about finding out how fulfilling it is?
Duh?
mayank batavia

19. So I sat down to figure it out and share it with you
here….
...because I suppose you and I are not
that different.
mayank batavia

20. We’d all be happier if we could do those snazzy,
world-changing stuff we dreamt of in our
kidhood days....
kidhood = childhood. Sounds cool?
mayank batavia

21. I’d like to kill doubts about whether what we
are doing is meaningful enough.
That’s because having doubts holds you back.*
*Not good.
mayank batavia

22. If something holds you back, you can’t give it
your everything.*
*bad
mayank batavia

23. Because not giving your full-self is like spending
only two dollars at the county fair while you are
carrying a hundred-dollar bill.
What a waste!
mayank batavia

24. I prefer working with people who give fully, for
they make me achieve more, learn more, give
more, do more… be more.
mayank batavia

25. Be more.
Yes!!!
mayank batavia

26. Do more than feed my family, pay my bills and
take a vacation.
Not to say these are small things; they’re
important too, but I’ll focus on more….
mayank batavia

27. So I’m listing down things that
make me feel happy
having spent time on them
mayank batavia

28. Think of these things as my revelations...
(See if they are your epiphanies too..)
mayank batavia

29. But before you read on, you must promise you
won’t scoff.
(If you do, I will ask you to submit twenty-three assignments next week. I lose temper
real teacher-style.)
mayank batavia

30. Read on, all the same...
mayank batavia

31. I like it when
only a bit of help from my
end helps my students
tower over their tasks.
1
mayank batavia

32. Learning a new thing isn’t easy.
It takes a lot to climb over ignorance -
which is one’s personal darkness - and
reach out to light.
mayank batavia

33. I love it when my students
achieve success and improve
their self-image.
2
mayank batavia

34. Teaching is about transforming an individual...
It’s like giving birth to a new person who is
a lot sure of herself and is happier about
it than she was yesterday.
mayank batavia

35. Teaching helps me build a
better society, in a small, but
not insignificant way.
3
mayank batavia

36. It’s like building a castle, one pebble at a time...
I may not touch lives of a million people,
but of the few hundreds I have taught,
many will start a positive chain reaction.
Bird by bird, as Anne Lamott would say
mayank batavia

37. I can soak into their youthful
energy and feel recharged
myself.
4
mayank batavia

38. These young women and men...
They’re so full of infectious energy, so
burning to go out and improve things, a lot
of it rubs off on me.
mayank batavia

39. In teaching, I actually end up
learning so much.
(Psst, this is a trade-secret.)
5
mayank batavia

40. Many of my students teach me about being
better humans...
They fight every shortcoming, every
handicap, every temptation and keep
expanding their skills with self-discipline.
mayank batavia

41. In teaching, I need to constantly laern learn.
And that’s not easy, since I need to stretch out
beyond my comfort zone.
Beyond what I already know. Or I think I know...
mayank batavia

42. I now realize I love teaching so much
because it helps me share what I have and
yet keep adding to it.
mayank batavia

43. I know none of these things I shared is trivial.
They keep me going.
They make my work more fulfilling, more
meaningful. :)
mayank batavia

44. I honestly hope you find, or have already
found, a profession, a bunch of people, a
company which helps you
do good things.
mayank batavia

45. I do hope you get to work with people
who’re as driven and as energetic as my
students.
They’ll help you grow.
mayank batavia

46. If we could find meaning to what we do, a
humdrum job can be a really, really rockin’
stuff.
(Or better.)
mayank batavia

47. I know I’m really proud of what I’m doing.
And lucky.
mayank batavia

48. And I wish you all the luck
to find
in finding meaning
in whatever you do.
mayank batavia

49. Sending good wishes your way…
(I also mean ‘thank you’.)
mayank batavia

50. If this presentation sounds familiar, it’s not
your fault.
It was inspired by this awesome one,
without being a ripoff.
mayank batavia