Why You Should Never Give Up on Your Dreams

    Trudging along in the hallways of Jim Thorpe High School, scanning the room numbers for your English class, you may pass by Mrs. Miller. Mrs. Miller, the head department chair of English, will always be standing patiently outside of her classroom door to greet you as you pass by. With her skirt and jacket ensemble, glasses mounted on the tip of her nose, and her white poofy hair, it is hard to miss her. As you step into her laboriously decorated room your view is filled with halloween witch decorations, apple knickknacks, and millions of string lights; the sweet scent of an apple orchard engulfs your sense of smell.

      Growing up in Lehighton, a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania, Mrs. Miller always dreamt of becoming a teacher, "I was a book fiend, I just loved to learn."
      She finally decided to chase after her dream of teaching after a colleague approached her at Hamfab, an insulation company Mrs.Miller was working at for 15 years, "When I was about 38 years old, one of my colleagues came into my office and said to me, 'Everybody in the industry knows you and respects you but you are a woman working in a man's world and you only have an associates degree. What are you going to do with the rest of your life?" That night Mrs. Miller went home to announce to her husband she was going back to college to become an English teacher, his response was a head shake of approval.

      Working full-time and being a college student full-time, Mrs. Miller will promise you the hard work was worth it for her dream to come true. In total, Trudy Miller attended 7 colleges, earning all the way to her Master's degree in English, Secondary Education, and (Half Master's) Creative Writing. Mrs. Miller also was taught in several post-graduate courses, so she could give her students the education that they deserved. "Each half of the school year I would take at least one course", Mrs. Miller did not go to college continually for all her credentials, but over a time period of 22 years, finishing college ultimately in 2011.

Figure 1: First yearbook photo of Mrs.Miller
as a teacher in Jim Thorpe

      At the age of 44 years old, Trudy Miller received her first job in Tamaqua Junior High, another small town about 25 minutes from her hometown, as a long-term substitute from January 1994 until June of 1994. Mrs. Miller then joined Jim Thorpe School District, a small town 15 minutes away from Lehighton, in August of 1994 (Figure 1); Trudy Miller would work at Jim Thorpe Junior High until 2002. From 2002 until 2019, Mrs. Miller would become the head department chair of English at the High School of Jim Thorpe. Trudy Miller worked as a teacher for 25 years, retiring at the age of 69.

      Over the course of 17 years, Mrs. Miller taught 6 courses at Jim Thorpe High School, where her primary working years were spent. Mrs. Miller hosted the following classes: Advanced Placement English (prepared students for the AP test), College Prep English (prepared students for college English), Applied English (teaching students the core standards and prepared them for the Keystone testing), Keystone Remediation (individual help with students who failed the Keystones), and lastly, Creative Writing I and Creative Writing II (let students explore different types of writing). All of Mrs. Miller's curriculum consisted of word roots (Mrs. Miller introduced word roots to the district), literary terminology, how to write properly, the reading of all genres, and analytical essays.

      In the year of 2003, Mrs. Miller was approached by the principal after the English department chair retired. "The principal wanted me in charge because he felt very strongly I would make positive changes in the department because of the fact that State Testing was being pushed," Mrs. Miller agreed to take over because of her students ranking in the 98th percentile in advanced and proficient on the State Test. Mrs. Miller later went on in her career to teach Keystone Remediation because of the students success rate, due to Mrs. Miller's classes.

Figure 2: The Flame literary art magazine editions
15'-16', 16'-17', 17'-18', and 18'-19'

      Mrs. Miller introduced a few things to the Jim Thorpe School District, one of the most important, The Flame literary magazine (Figure 2). In 2005, a group of students approached Mrs. Miller asking her to be the advisor for a literary magazine the students wanted to put together. The Flame would include all types of literary art, narratives, poetry, photography, horror, history, and fiction. The Flame truly blossomed in writing in 2007, when the courses Creative Writing I and Creative Writing II were added; these courses would be taught by Mrs.Miller and the student work produced in those classes would be added into The Flame. In 2012, Mrs. Miller started to enter the literary magazine into multiple contests. Over the years The Flame magazine has won 4 awards from American Scholastic Press Association (ASPA) and 5 awards from National Counsel of Teachers of English (NCTE). A specific student of Mrs. Miller's was even published in Teen Ink in the year of 2011.

Figure 3: Mrs. Miller (left) with Mrs. Rosenberger,
the new English department chair (right)

   "I use to drive past schools saying, 'Oh I wish I was in there teaching'," Mrs. Miller finally had achieved her dream profession, all she had to do was not give up. Today, Mrs. Miller is writing an autobiography of her entire life, and how she got to where she is now. If you ask any past student of hers, you would know she always mentioned, "I can not wait to be sitting on my porch, sipping my tea, and writing my book." Mrs. Miller has no regrets about leaving Jim Thorpe Area High School, "It was my time," and she feels content knowing she left the English department in good hands (Figure 3).