3.5 miles: If there is any single phrase I can tell someone who may be considering moving into the education profession I would say this: all beautiful moments begin with the smallest connections. If you aren't willing to connect to the soul of a child, then you should not find yourself in this field. If you aren't willing to work towards a connection, you are teaching with emptiness. You would inspire but you will create a culture where the students feel disconnected. Because a lot of what life is-is through the connections we make with people, and I think one does not need to conduct a study to know and see and feel a connected child, a connect adult, a connected human when they see one. When I opened up a few of my Valentine's Day cards today, I noticed a theme amongst the words. There was not the words "You are the best teacher" or even "I like your classroom." Rather, there were three cards that all said the same thing: "Thank you for being one of my greatest friends." And I know I've written this before, but I do think the reason in which I went into the field of education was not because I had hundreds of teachers who were "telling" me what to do. Rather, they were invested in who I was as a person and they wanted to be my friend. The friendship I made amongst many of my teachers made a truly lasting impact. So I suppose when someone tells you "you cannot be their friend you need to be their TEACHER" I would argue that you can and should try to do both. Because a mentor truly does become a friend when they are mentoring correctly.