To be a teacher means lesson plans, grading homework, grading papers, and endless amounts of time in and out of the classroom. One teacher, however, finds that her job has robbed her of a love life.

"I am 36 and I already feel I had a better life when I was younger," said a "secret teacher" in an article on TheGuardian.com. "I am consumed by loneliness as I sit in the school staff room pondering my future. I sacrificed my tentative 20s to apply for jobs all over the country, instead of building a life with another person. Teaching took over my life, and while I had friends and colleagues to socialise with, I never had the time to build a relationship, or even have anything that resembled it, and gradually my social self-esteem plummeted."

The Secret Teacher found that as he or she spends "longer in the profession, get better results, perform well, gain the respect of my colleagues and managers, as well as ascending in my union role, there’s an assumption that I must be happy with my life – but I’m not."

"I have things that fill my time but they never fill the emptiness that I desperately long to be filled by another person. There’s a space in my life that is sometimes filled by brief affairs and short-lived flings, but there remains a vacuum that work can’t satisfy," the Secret Teacher said."

Secret Teacher said he or she remembers weekends when they would rest, "but now they are filled with coursework marking." Now, they "can’t imagine a bright future with a happy family, as it doesn’t seem to want to come to pass. If I had more time to devote to it, I’m sure it would."

When I signed on as a teacher I knew there would be sacrifices for the greater good," said the Secret Teacher. "Even when I took up my union role I reconciled myself to not being able to pursue senior leadership roles, but I never expected that I would die alone. I love teaching – paperwork aside – and I love that I’m good at it too, but it’s robbed me of my future."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor