The three experiences that prepared me for my teaching career

I'm filling out the essay question portion of my application to VIU to get my teaching degree. KP said it would be fun to post my answers here and give you all a sense of where I'm at in my career. The first question asked "what three experiences prepared me for my my teaching career," and there was a lot to choose from. These are the ones I could narrow down to about 75 words.

My first experience that prepared me for my career in teaching was when I first got offered a job as a behaviour interventionist. It was 3 AM and I was woken up by an email notification saying that I was to be a 9 year old boy’s therapist for the foreseeable future. I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. Suddenly I was aware of all of the things that could go wrong, as well as all the ways I could be a positive influence in this boy’s life. It was a moment of awakening for me, and it’s now something I keep in the back of my head when I work with students.
I'm still with this particular client. Lately he's been doing super well and I am very proud of him.

My second experience would have to be the time I had to keep five boys from the intensive behaviour program in the school infirmary while another student had to be de-escalated. I learned that in all actuality, teachers have very little control over their student’s actions, and things can go terribly wrong very quickly if you can’t think on your feet.
I didn't delve into the details here. What ended up happening was two of the boys stealing the walkie talkies the supervisors use. One locked himself in the bathroom while the other listened to all the fart noises he made. I was very close to tears because the other three boys kept trying to get on each other's nerves, stealing shoes and hiding under the bed or behind the trashcan, and we were locked in a tiny, tiny room with no windows and no way of calling for help. But somehow I got everyone in order before it was safe to go back. I'm still not sure how I did it.

My third experience would be the time I ran a social studies lesson for a group of grade twos. We had to do it in the school’s library since it was a small group that was part of a 1/2 split. It went terribly until a teacher the kids admired chewed them out for giving me a hard time. I learned that respect and admiration goes a lot farther than a stern voice.
This was a hard lesson to learn. I had grown to like a lot of these kids, and it hurt a bit to realize they didn't give two shits about my ability to teach them. I'm super thankful that I got the help when I did, otherwise things would have gone off the rails and I wouldn't have a clue as to why.

More to come as I work through all of these questions. Stay tuned.