Have you figured out what you want to do when you grow up? I have. But I didn't realize it until looking back over 20 years of my life history. It began in a single moment...
S1E1: Finding My Passion
Tyler Small: I just had this full body full soul realization that I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life
[00:00:09]So I remember being 15 years old sitting on this bar stool in our kitchen and I had my backpack I had my textbooks, I think I was leafing through one of my binders, looking into some assignments I had to do as eating a snack there and my mom was making dinner or something. I was kind of chatting with her and I just had this realization that I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And, it was that I wanted to be an English teacher.
[00:00:39] And so , looking back, it's like, okay. Am I an English teacher? Am I going to be an English teacher ? Not exactly. I have done that in many respects, but let me just kind of explain where this path took. So sitting there and I was like, okay. Yeah, like I'm going to teach English and, you know, looking back over the course of the last 22 years since that moment. That's the closest thing that I knew of to what I do now, I'm basically an emotional intelligence coach and, you know, I had no idea what that meant. I don't even know if that term was very popular at that point. But, now looking back, it's like, okay, that's kind of, you know, speaking English to each other, how to communicate. Using language that's basically what it is. It's. You're one type of English teacher.
[00:01:41] So, way back then, I was like, okay, well, what do I do next? I told my mom about this and I was just like overwhelmed. I think I had tears running down my face and. I was like mom, like I think I know what I'm, what I'm supposed to do. Like my calling in life, you know?
[00:01:57] And she was like, wow, that's great. So. Funny thing. I wasn't a great English student. You know, I was okay, but they always kind of put me in the class with the kids who didn't read as well. And I was a slow reader as I was. Pretty good at comprehension, but I was a slow reader. Probably pretty poor writer at that time.
[00:02:19]I was a pretty good student. Like, I'd get straight A's, but you know, not, not the best specimen for this. I was in the easier class. So I started taking honors English courses. And graduated went to university. In University, I enrolled as an English ed major. Right. And yes, I had done some tutoring and I had taught English to some of my friends from other countries. And yes, I did some intern internships. What do they call it? Interest shifts or something like that.
[00:02:52] Anyway, I ended up teaching English , here and there just to see how I liked it. And I loved it. I I also did this two years service mission. And so for two years I was, you know, tasked with teaching. These, these lessons are basically self-reliance. It was for the church that I went to. I still go to, it was a really cool experience because I felt like I was going to be a teacher, you know, in the long run. And so this is a really good opportunity.
[00:03:21] So anyway, from that moment when I was 15, , I was paying attention, like who are the best teachers in my life? What are they doing that's different? What are they saying? How do they structure their lessons? I didn't know the word pedagogy or anything like that, but I was looking at, you know, what. What are the things that they use in order to help people learn? And, , I came up with these two questions in the long run. And the first question was, what is the most important thing that people have to know? And, how can they best learn it? So that was kind of my longterm two questions.
[00:03:57]Anyway at university, I showed up there and, you know English, ed major. And I kept getting this question and people, I think asked me this in high school, but I realized when I got there, a lot of people were asking me and they're like, Hey Tyler, like, do you have ADD? And I was like, why does everybody keep asking me that? And what is ADD? So, come to find out. Yeah, I had ADD. And I was a little bit scattered. I think that can be, for some people an advantage in social situations. For me, it was not.
[00:04:28] But I struggled, I struggled a lot and you know, I went on a ton of dates. Like I wanted to get married. Because of this two year mission, I was like 21 probably seems pretty young, still to want to get married. I was like, Oh yeah. I want to find the woman of my dreams and spend my life with this person. And I ended up going on. I had this little date journal. And I kept track. I ended up going to 500 dates before I met my wife. I had like 30 jobs. I moved a ton. And, you know, I had a lot of awkward social situations. I was like that. I didn't, I didn't know how to, how to, how to do the whole social thing.
[00:05:08] I was very process minded, results, oriented . I was really good at math. Like I had taken the highest math classes offered by my high school and, you know, so. I almost didn't have to take any math classes at all when I got to university, because I was an English ed.
[00:05:26] But anyway, I was in this program and they kicked me out of the program. They're like, you know we're really concerned about your ability to perform in this program. And I was getting pretty good grades. So I was like, what, you know, what, what's the issue? And they're like, you're just make people feel awkward. So I was like, Oh, okay, well, I guess they'll have to go to some other school and get into their program. Do it cause. I'm going to be, I'm going to be an English teacher. Like that's what I know I'm supposed to do. So, he was like, well, feel free to do that, but you're not going to do our programs.
[00:05:58] I was like, Oh man. I started applying to , other universities. I was at the BYU Idaho at the time. So I applied to BYU and I actually I'm on this quest to figure out, okay. What are the most important things to learn? And , how are they to be learned? I was like, Oh, okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do communication disorders. And I was like, that'll probably be better for my no social ability because it's with a smaller group often. One-on-one. Speech language pathology.
[00:06:25] Besides I thought, , I love linguistics and actually over the summer. I was volunteering in this classroom. It was English as a second language. And I was like, , I was teaching these kids English. And I was like, you know, this is great. But it's a little repetitive. It was very repetitive to be honest. And I, I totally respect the people who do that. And it wasn't for me. I couldn't, I couldn't do the repetition.
[00:06:50] So I was like, okay. I'm going to be a speech language pathologist. So I applied at a BYU Provo, or had some friends. , it's so funny, like where I had some friends, right. People are so much more deliberate about where they go to school. I was like, Oh, there's mountains there. I have some friends. Sounds good.
[00:07:08] It's like, okay. So you know, that part wasn't extremely deliberate, but I did meet my wife there eventually. So that was great. Anyway, so. That was kind of how my, my path began and ended up taking a ton of linguistics courses. eventually a lot of psychology and , that really set the stage for the next chapter in my life of , finding , my grad program, , which I'll tell you about in the next episode.
[00:07:37] So I hope you enjoyed this this first little bit on my life. I it's , it's pretty vulnerable for me, but. I think you'll see , how it all happened in the end and that it was, it was really good. It was the path that I've traveled. Although I've struggled a lot in certain places, it's, it's been extremely valuable and I'd been able to help out so many people since.
[00:08:02] I've been through the ringer on this. So. I'll see you the next episode thanks as this is Tyler Small with the Five-Star Approach