About Me

Name: Tegan Rohne

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday: December 5

MBTI Personality (for those who think this is actually important): INFJ

Major: Elementary Education (Formerly Information Technology)

Minor: None

Projected Year of Graduation: 2029

Favorite color: Yellow

Favorite food: Mac & Cheese

Favorite species of moth: Apantesis phalerata

Favorite NASCAR driver(s): Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar

* This is all very important information - I swear! *

My story was pretty straightforward.

I grew up in the suburbs playing my Pokemon games and those cheap game systems made for children. I played pretend Pokemon with the boys at recess and desperately tried to get other girls interested in my favorite games. I learned how to code in middle school from a coding website called Scratch. I was surrounded by technology, whether it be through my parent’s clunky laptop, my trusty Nintendo DS, the Chromebooks I was lent by my school for assignments each day, or the gizmos and gadgets lying around in my dad's basement. And I learned over the years how to get the technology I was surrounded by to bend to my will.

I was a computer kid. I still am a computer kid. I’ll always be a computer kid.

Or so I thought.

In all those nights dreaming of what I could be; the code I'd write, the places I'd see, in all of them and more – I wanted to know code well enough to eventually settle down and teach it to a class of eager peers. Just like my programming teacher through high school. But forced against my will, writing programs I had no love for, applying for jobs that meant nothing to me, being disregarded by my peers, teachers, advisors – I couldn't take it anymore.

People believe that the strong will fight on. Continue pursuing this path to see the brighter future on the other side. Continue against their will. Against your will.

But sometimes the strongest thing you could do, the strongest action of all, is admitting to yourself that this path, this path you've spent years preparing to trek, that you've spent your whole life fighting through – isn't the one for you.

The strongest thing to do, in a world full of people that will motivate you to continue "keeping up the good work," or "keep doing what you do best," – or even pressure you, believing "this is the only way" – is to follow your true passion. To go against their will and do what you love, even if they believe it isn't right. To go against your will, the falsified dreams you convinced yourself to believe and work towards for years, and do what you feel the most love for doing.

And for me that's teaching.

Believe me – I know this field is going to be a rough one. The pay is horrendous. Their funding could get cut. The youth of today will only become more cold, jaded, stubborn, or troublesome to make it in these egregiously more jaded and horrific times we're approaching.

But I don't care.

I'd rather spend my entire life with nothing but the work I've done for them and the work I love and feel most passionate about doing, than to waste it all on everything and a role that doesn't give me any form of fulfillment. I want to be an elementary school teacher. I want to make learning exciting and enjoyable again. But most importantly – I just want to see my students smile, and leave these formative years of their childhood lives with happy memories.