Close-Minded Comments
The very first semester I taught, a student asked sarcastically, "Why would anyone want to be a teacher?" To which I replied, without thinking, "Because it allows me to meet a variety of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, keeps me open-minded, and stops me from dismissing career choices whose value I don't immediately see." To which the student had no response.
One ex-boyfriend was similarly disparaging towards my career choices, dismissing it out of hand because I'll never "earn enough." (No one goes into teaching for the money, yet one can actually support oneself and provide for one's family on said salary, have a pension, be able to care for one's children, etc. Not all careers have these options.)
More recently, someone made the following comment: "Don't be offended, but your parents are just teachers from Pennsylvania." (I'm "just a teacher" from Utah.) Why would I want a person who makes such comments in my life?
I'm not an acquisitive person. I don't want a lot of stuff. I want to be able to afford food, housing, stuff I need, and take vacations every year or two, which on a teacher's salary I can do. I don't aspire to be the head of an English department at an Ivy League university or live in a major city; that sort of life is not to my liking. I "just" want to be a teacher where I am now.