Some people discover their purpose in a single moment. For English teacher Ms. Danielle O’Reilly, it unfolded slowly, in the quiet turning of pages and the questions that lingered long after a book closed. She wasn’t 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.

“Love of literature,” O’Reilly explained. “I went to school and double majored in English and psychology.”

Teaching wasn’t part of the plan at first.

“I was initially thinking of law school,” O’Reilly admitted. “But 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?’”

The question lingered.

“And I was like, maybe I don’t.”

It was in that hesitation that her path became clear.

“I would say that’s really what started leading me down the path of teaching, which is how much I love books. Good literature,” O’Reilly said.

Leaving her hometown for college also shaped her perspective. She intentionally chose a school farther from home, Ithaca College.

“One of the reasons why I chose to do that was I wanted to be a little bit more independent,” O’Reilly noted. “I didn’t 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.”

Living on her own reinforced that independence.

“Even just living outside of your home, living in a dorm room, planning your own meals,” O’Reilly shared. “I 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.”

O’Reilly completed her undergraduate degree at Ithaca before earning two master’s degrees.

“I went to Villanova for my first master’s in English and teaching, and then Southern New Hampshire University for a creative writing in English degree,” she said.

There were moments in college when she realized she was on the right path.

“English has always been an easier subject for me, always something I enjoyed more,” O’Reilly emphasized.

One experience stands out.

“I did an honors thesis at Ithaca, and we presented it at a symposium,” she explained. “I had a couple people come up afterward and say, those were really cool ideas that we hadn’t thought about, but easy to understand the way you said.”

That reaction stuck with her.

“I was like, oh, that’s kind of cool.”

Then a professor made a suggestion.

“She said, ‘maybe you should teach,’” O’Reilly recalled. “And I was like, ‘I don’t love kids,’ and she’s like, ‘well, you don’t have to teach kindergarten,’ and I was like, that’s true.”

Travel has also deeply influenced O’Reilly’s worldview.

“It has totally affected me in so many different ways,” she stated. “I’ve always loved legends. Mythology and things like that are cool.”

Recently, she took students to Ireland and Scotland.

“We learned about the Loch Ness Monster and things like that,” O’Reilly said. “Scotland’s national animal is a unicorn.”

For O’Reilly, travel connects directly to literature.

“I feel like every culture has its own stories that it tells,” she said. “There are values there that you can see through the literature.”

Immersion, she believes, changes understanding.

“If you immerse yourself in a place, it gives you a whole new way of appreciating what people value,” O’Reilly said.

Her first major travel experience was backpacking across Europe with her brother.

“There were definitely a couple hiccups,” she reflected. “We were supposed to get off a train, and it stopped in a field and we didn’t realize we had to get off in the field.”

Moments like that taught her flexibility.

“It really taught me to be more flexible in my thought process and try not to panic as much,” O’Reilly added.

Hiking the Inca Trail in Peru was another challenge.

“I did not know how steep some of the things were going to be,” she said. “I’m a little scared of heights.”

Still, she values those uncomfortable moments.

“It forces you to challenge yourself in different ways that sometimes it’s hard to do when you’re in a comfortable area,” she observed.

That mindset has helped her professionally.

“Anytime you’re pressed outside of your comfort zone, it teaches you how to handle that,” she said. “When I started teaching, I wasn’t scared of certain things that sometimes new teachers say they’re scared of.”

She believes those experiences gave her confidence in the classroom.

“I didn’t feel like I didn’t know what I wanted to share with students,” O’Reilly said.

When asked about her favorite book, she laughed.

“English teacher question. That’s rough.”

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.

“Moby Dick would be my favorite,” O’Reilly expressed. “There is a lot going on.”

Stepping outside her comfort zone has taught her one lasting lesson.

“It’s worth trying new things,” she said. “Even when it goes wrong, it never goes wrong as bad as you think it will. Be brave.”

For students nervous about leaving their hometown after graduation, her advice is thoughtful and practical.
“Think about what is making you nervous,” O’Reilly stated. “If you can narrow it down, you can come up with a plan.”

She also encourages focusing on the positive.

“There are always going to be low points,” she said. “But having something to look forward to gives you that idea of a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Years from now, O’Reilly hopes students remember more than just plot details.

“As much as I love the stories, I think more important is that you walk away feeling like you can conquer new books alone,” she emphasized. “Maybe you don’t remember perfectly everything that happened, but you remember that on day one you thought it wasn’t possible, and by the end you felt confident.”

That confidence is what remains after the essays are graded and the pages are closed.

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.

And in that quiet understanding, the lesson of her class endures.