Do you remember your first teacher? Maybe kindergarten or first grade? I remember my kindergarten teacher, who was ancient and crabby and yelled a lot. To this four-year-old, that was pretty scary. And I also remember with love and adoration many teachers after that – especially the ones who unleashed in me a passion for English, reading and creative writing.

As we go through life, though, teachers don’t always stand in front of a classroom. They don’t assign books to read or essays to write, and we don’t get graded. But there are lessons we need to learn.

Sometimes our greatest teachers are bullies or difficult people, whose message is we need to stand up for ourselves, put up boundaries and say “No more” to abuse.

Sometimes our greatest teachers are rejection or failure, which help us build resilience and faith and get us on a better path.

Sometimes our greatest teachers are illness or heartache, which teach us to appreciate all of the million large and small blessings we do have, including the people who mean the most to us.

And sometimes, our teachers are of the four-legged furry variety, who teach us unconditional love and the joy of caring for an animal.

I believe that teachers get placed on our life path for a reason. And they will shape-shift and appear again and again, until we learn whatever lesson they came to teach.