By Kejsi Zyka, Opinions Editor

Former prison teacher Ian Godwin took a year off from teaching to become a truck driver. Godwin traveled to almost every state in the U.S. last year. Now he’s a new English teacher at First Flight, and is glad to be around new students – or just people in general.

Godwin decided to embark on this journey and try something new after the summer of 2017 and the 2018-19 school year.

“I had thought about truck driving, and money was the main reason I did it,” Godwin said. “I thought it would be more lucrative.”

The money was beneficial, but so was traveling to a lot of places for Godwin, who had many favorites. 

“I got to see the countryside, the Grand Canyon, the tip of Florida, the Rocky Mountains and my favorite area in Washington State, Snoqualmie Pass,” Godwin said. “The place is totally treacherous in the winter.”

Although driving a truck was a wild and fun ride, it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. 

“I would be in the back of the truck if I wasn’t driving, then I would wake up and start driving again, and it was extremely repetitive,” Godwin said. “It was cathartic and meditative, but it was mind-numbing.”

As Godwin drove his Freightliner International every day, he realized how much he missed teaching, and how much he wanted to go back. 

“I think it made me appreciate the role of the teacher and the importance of school,” Godwin said. 

Before Godwin made the decision to become a truck driver, he was an English teacher in a juvenile prison outside of Richmond, Virginia. 

The job was not one that many people favored. But to Godwin, it was an opportunity he was excited about. 

“My youngest student ever was 12 and the oldest was 19,” Godwin said. “They were supposed to age out at 18, but there was a program where a couple of students were able to return before they were 19.”

For the most part, Godwin loved the experience, even though he was threatened a couple of times. 

“I got threats like if I existed where they were from and I was in their neighborhood, then things would be different,” Godwin said. “And I agreed with them for obvious reasons.”

But at the same time, Godwin was able to establish a rapport with most of the kids, even the ones who were not so fond of him at first. 

“It was awesome, and I had the opportunity to make sort of a breakthrough with my students on a daily basis,” Godwin said. 

The prison job sounded intriguing for the English teacher, as he wanted something different compared to the last place he had worked.

“I had been teaching at a very high-performing school at a very expensive neighborhood, sort of the other side of education, and I wanted a different experience,” Godwin said.

From teaching in a prison to driving a truck to becoming an FFHS English teacher, Godwin has quite the list of life experiences. Now that he’s shifted from the cab to the classroom, he’s just glad to not be in solitude any longer and is also looking forward to an exciting year at First Flight. 

Senior Kejsi Zyka can be reached at zykake0914@daretolearn.org.