I spent my entire life hearing that I would make a great teacher, but I had zero interest in it. It wasn't until I had my bachelor's degree in my hand and I saw firsthand, young children in my family find their "ah-ha" moments, that it clicked for me that I wanted to spend my career in the classroom.

In my fourth year of teaching, I had a student with severely limited speech. When she started the year, she only spoke about three words. One day during playtime, someone took the toy she was playing with. In all of her five-year-old rage, she came to me and said: "Dinosaur took he!" It was the first time she had strung words together in a sentence, and it was incredible to witness that moment.

We are actually in the process of adopting our daughters from foster care. With that money, we would go on an epic family vacation to celebrate our family's permanency. This adoption has been a very long, drawn-out process that has taken several years. When we finally sign the papers, go in front of a judge, and share the same last name, we would love to celebrate hugely while surrounded by our family and friends.