Some people discover their purpose in a single moment. For English teacher Ms. Danielle O\u2019Reilly, it unfolded slowly, in the quiet turning of pages and the questions that lingered long after a book closed. She wasn\u2019t chasing a career when she fell in love with literature. She was chasing understanding, curiosity, and the kind of wonder that makes a difficult book feel worth the struggle.<\/p>\n
\u201cLove of literature,\u201d O\u2019Reilly explained. \u201cI went to school and double majored in English and psychology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teaching wasn\u2019t part of the plan at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was initially thinking of law school,\u201d O\u2019Reilly admitted. \u201cBut then during my senior year, one of my professors was like, ‘are you sure you want to give all this up to study law texts?’\u201d<\/p>\n
The question lingered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I was like, maybe I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was in that hesitation that her path became clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that\u2019s really what started leading me down the path of teaching, which is how much I love books. Good literature,\u201d O’Reilly said.<\/p>\n
Leaving her hometown for college also shaped her perspective. She intentionally chose a school farther from home, Ithaca College.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons why I chose to do that was I wanted to be a little bit more independent,\u201d O\u2019Reilly noted. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to have the option of coming home every weekend, letting my parents do things for me. I love my parents, but I wanted to be a little more independent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Living on her own reinforced that independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven just living outside of your home, living in a dorm room, planning your own meals,\u201d O\u2019Reilly shared. \u201cI chose to live in apartment housing on campus during my junior and senior year. That gave me even more freedom. Do I go eat in the cafeteria or do I make something in my own kitchen? We could really choose who we lived with. That was a lot of freedom, a lot of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Reilly completed her undergraduate degree at Ithaca before earning two master\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to Villanova for my first master\u2019s in English and teaching, and then Southern New Hampshire University for a creative writing in English degree,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
There were moments in college when she realized she was on the right path.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnglish has always been an easier subject for me, always something I enjoyed more,\u201d O\u2019Reilly emphasized.<\/p>\n
One experience stands out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did an honors thesis at Ithaca, and we presented it at a symposium,\u201d she explained. \u201cI had a couple people come up afterward and say, those were really cool ideas that we hadn\u2019t thought about, but easy to understand the way you said.\u201d<\/p>\n
That reaction stuck with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, oh, that\u2019s kind of cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then a professor made a suggestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, ‘maybe you should teach,’\u201d O\u2019Reilly recalled. \u201cAnd I was like, ‘I don\u2019t love kids,’ and she\u2019s like, ‘well, you don\u2019t have to teach kindergarten,’ and I was like, that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travel has also deeply influenced O\u2019Reilly\u2019s worldview.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has totally affected me in so many different ways,\u201d she stated. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved legends. Mythology and things like that are cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, she took students to Ireland and Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned about the Loch Ness Monster and things like that,\u201d O\u2019Reilly said. \u201cScotland\u2019s national animal is a unicorn.\u201d<\/p>\n
For O\u2019Reilly, travel connects directly to literature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like every culture has its own stories that it tells,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are values there that you can see through the literature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immersion, she believes, changes understanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you immerse yourself in a place, it gives you a whole new way of appreciating what people value,\u201d O\u2019Reilly said.<\/p>\n
Her first major travel experience was backpacking across Europe with her brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were definitely a couple hiccups,\u201d she reflected. \u201cWe were supposed to get off a train, and it stopped in a field and we didn\u2019t realize we had to get off in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments like that taught her flexibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really taught me to be more flexible in my thought process and try not to panic as much,\u201d O\u2019Reilly added.<\/p>\n
Hiking the Inca Trail in Peru was another challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not know how steep some of the things were going to be,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a little scared of heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, she values those uncomfortable moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt forces you to challenge yourself in different ways that sometimes it\u2019s hard to do when you\u2019re in a comfortable area,\u201d she observed.<\/p>\n
That mindset has helped her professionally.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you\u2019re pressed outside of your comfort zone, it teaches you how to handle that,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I started teaching, I wasn\u2019t scared of certain things that sometimes new teachers say they\u2019re scared of.\u201d<\/p>\n
She believes those experiences gave her confidence in the classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I didn\u2019t know what I wanted to share with students,\u201d O\u2019Reilly said.<\/p>\n
When asked about her favorite book, she laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnglish teacher question. That\u2019s rough.\u201d<\/p>\n
She mentioned The Name of the Wind series and The Pillars of the Earth, praising their detail and world building. But when it comes to books she teaches, one stands out.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoby Dick would be my favorite,\u201d O\u2019Reilly expressed. \u201cThere is a lot going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stepping outside her comfort zone has taught her one lasting lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worth trying new things,\u201d she said. \u201cEven when it goes wrong, it never goes wrong as bad as you think it will. Be brave.\u201d<\/p>\n
For students nervous about leaving their hometown after graduation, her advice is thoughtful and practical.
\n\u201cThink about what is making you nervous,\u201d O\u2019Reilly stated. \u201cIf you can narrow it down, you can come up with a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also encourages focusing on the positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always going to be low points,\u201d she said. \u201cBut having something to look forward to gives you that idea of a light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Years from now, O\u2019Reilly hopes students remember more than just plot details.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I love the stories, I think more important is that you walk away feeling like you can conquer new books alone,\u201d she emphasized. \u201cMaybe you don\u2019t remember perfectly everything that happened, but you remember that on day one you thought it wasn\u2019t possible, and by the end you felt confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
That confidence is what remains after the essays are graded and the pages are closed.<\/p>\n
It is the knowledge that something once daunting can become achievable. That stepping into the unknown does not have to be terrifying. That even when the path is hard, you are capable of walking it.<\/p>\n
And in that quiet understanding, the lesson of her class endures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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