Guest Writer Jillian Lynk
“Everything is not on a time frame. Goal setting is very important; if you set goals you see your purpose,” said law teacher, Niambi Pringle when describing her life as having segments, each with a specific purpose.
After twelve years teaching at Loy Norrix, Pringle is starting a new segment in her life and has decided to move to Tucson, Arizona, with her family to practice law in three years.
This follows the statistic that people change careers on average three to seven times in their working life and changes jobs on average twelve times in their lifetime, and according to “Forbes” this number will increase even more with new generations.
For Pringle, the majority of her family already lives in Tucson and the decision in large part was based on her children and the opportunities that living in Arizona can provide them. Since she began telling people about her decision to move, many people have questioned her choice.
“I don’t make decisions based on what other people think I should do,” said Pringle “I make decisions based on the needs of my children.”
Although it is not her first time moving or changing careers, it will be her hardest. Prior to teaching, she was a sports and politics journalist, since then her priorities have changed a lot. Changing careers has allowed her to learn more, experience more, and brought her closer to doing what she wants.
“All those things that I wanted to do when I was younger, it’s all starting to come into view,” said Pringle.
The main lesson she has learned throughout her varying careers was about friendship.
“The fewer the friends the better the circle,and with that better circle you get growth,” said Pringle.
Coincidentally, this lesson is the exact reason her decision to leave Loy Norrix has been so hard. With a wavering voice and tears in her eyes, Pringle explained how it was her group of teachers, a good circle of friends, that she has grown close to over the years that she will miss the most. Among that group is government and economics teacher, Ryan Allen, whom she described as a brother to her.
This aspect of family definitely carries over into her teaching style, evident in both the wall of her classroom covered floor to ceiling in pictures from her students over the years and in conversations with her students and other teachers wherein the most common word used to describe Pringle was “mom.”
“She is that mom who will tell you exactly what you need to know even if you don’t want to hear it,” said forensics science teacher Mark Lowrie.
In her many years teaching at Loy Norrix she has met approximately three thousand five hundred students, but two that have stood out to her in recent years are Norrix alumni Benjamin Byrd and senior Hailey Timmerman. Byrd reflected on his time at Norrix in Pringle’s class.
“Even though we didn’t agree on everything it was really nice to have someone who would always be as honest as she could. She was unlike a lot of teachers,” said Byrd.
“I’m still discovering myself,” said Pringle “I’m gonna teach you the best that I know and help you grow but I’m still growing too.”
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Social Studies Teacher Speaks on Change, Growth, and Moving
June 15, 2017
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