Why I Left the Classroom: My Story of Burnout, Motherhood, and a Leap of Faith

“And in that moment, I knew something had to change.”

I never thought I’d walk away from teaching. I went to college for 4 years for this career. It was my passion to teach and make a difference in the classroom ever since I was in elementary school.

I was a high school culinary teacher for six years, and for a while, it was everything I dreamed of (despite my first year being during COVID, that is a story all by itself!). But slowly, the spark started to fade. Each school year got harder. The admin became more toxic. Parents refused to work with me on student behavior and discipline issues. And the students… well, they were becoming harder to handle, too.

It wasn’t just the stress of being a teacher that weighed on me. I was also a mom and a wife, trying to juggle it all. I hated leaving my son every morning, knowing I’d realistically only get 3 or 4 hours to be with him each day. I missed major milestones and memories of him as a baby because I was stuck at work, parenting other people’s kids while mine was at home without me. It broke me constantly. I felt like a terrible mom all the time because I was never home.

One morning as I was walking out the door to work, my son looked at me and asked, “You have to go to work again?” I said yes. And he sighed, “Oh… I see. Mommy doesn’t love me.”

I’ll never forget that moment. It shattered me. I SOBBED all the way to work, like mascara and snot running down my face… I looked like one of my teenager students who just got broken up with and the world was going to end for them. It’s not like I wanted to leave him with our nanny, but to a two year old, they don’t understand that at all. And as a teacher, I felt like I had to give 100% of myself to other people’s kids while missing the most important moments with my own.

I knew something had to change. But I didn’t know what… yet.

That’s when I found a reel about Rachel Gibbs’ Educator’s Exit course on Instagram. Fifteen family and friends sent me this same reel I saw that same day, and told me that I needed to look into this course. I’d never bought anything so fast in my life. I took money out of our savings for this course. I took the course in December 2023 and officially launched my VA business in January 2024.

I wish I could say my business took off right after launching… it didn’t. The problem was that I didn’t know who my ideal client was which made it hard to create content and really help the people I wanted to help with my services. After talking to one of my favorite class guest speakers, she had mentioned she needed help with her private chef and catering business. That’s when the seed of an idea started forming. I’d always loved cooking and creating recipes, so I began helping culinary experts, food bloggers and recipe creators behind the scenes, managing their inboxes, creating content, testing recipes, anything that would let them focus on what they loved most: being in the kitchen. I started this as a side business while still teaching, just to see if it could go somewhere.

But I needed that final push to take that last leap of faith.

In March 2025, there was an incident in my classroom. A student pulled a kitchen chefs knife and started attempting to attack other students with that knife. I luckily was able to deescalate the situation and no one got hurt, but I directly went to admin during my lunch break in hopes of removing the student from my classroom permanently. Instead of supporting me, admin started with “Well, did he actually stab someone?” I told them no but that shouldn’t matter because it was the attempt of stabbing that should be enough to remove the student from the classroom. The admin then shifted mindset and blamed me for this happening. “If you had better management skills, this wouldn’t have happened,” they said. They demanded that I set up an intervention meeting with the student and their parent the next morning before school.

I remember walking down the hallway, back to my classroom, feeling completely defeated and angry beyond belief. It wasn’t the first time admin let me down in the past 6 years of teaching.

They constantly put me in unsafe situations (physically and emotionally), never stepping in to help when I needed, often making situations actually far worse than before. Each time broke me little by little.

All of these emotions and memories of frustration and anger overcame me. Right outside my door, I stopped. Something in me just snapped. I thought, No. I can’t do this anymore. I won’t do this anymore. I turned around, walked right back to the office, and told admin, “This will be my last year as a teacher. And if you don’t do something about that student right now, it’ll be my last day instead.”

Stunned and speechless at my sudden confidence, they promised to take care of it, and sure, they “kind of” did. Just enough to keep me from not quitting that day honestly.

I went home that day and told my husband that May 23rd, 2025 would be my last day as a teacher, he hugged me and said that he was proud of me. I took that final and very much needed leap of faith and for that, we knew everything was going to work out.

In April 2025, I was able to make more as a VA than as a teacher and I knew that it was because I mentally was all in on my business instead of relying on my teaching career for my main income.

I’ve had the absolute honor of working with incredible food bloggers and culinary experts; helping with all sorts of tasks. Every task I take on is rooted in the passion I thought I lost as a teacher but now, I get to channel it into something that truly fulfills me.

I’m now a full-time VA for food bloggers. And while it took a scary leap of faith to get here, it was absolutely worth it.