As I reach the cusp of four years of tutoring alongside my university degree, I’m really struck by how seamlessly the act of teaching has weaved into my own journey of learning. What began as a casual job that helped to reinforce my knowledge I had picked up on in school and support others has grown into a lens through which I view everyday life: everything truly is a cycle of teaching and being taught, and attempting to learn something new every single day..
Tutoring has shown me that learning does not stop at the edges of a syllabus. A session with a student might just begin with a focus on Shakespeare or Pythagoras’ theorem but the underlying process of questioning, testing, revising, mirrors challenges well beyond the classroom. I’ve found myself applying the same strategies in internships, group projects, and even personal decision-making. The patience to sit with being uncertain and unsure, the attempts to unpack a problem and the empathy required to see from another’s perspective are as relevant in daily interactions as they are in education.
One of the most profound lessons I’ve drawn is that tutoring is never a one-way transfer of knowledge. Students often surprise me with interpretations, analogies, or questions I hadn’t considered. In that moment, I really am the one learning too. This reciprocity reinforces the idea that education is ongoing, collaborative, and fundamentally important to everyone.
After nearly four years, I can’t say I see tutoring as simply guiding students toward better grades. It has become about instilling a sense of curiosity and the ability to think on your feet; qualities that last well beyond the final exam. More importantly, it has reshaped how I view my own path. I am reminded constantly that growth doesn’t arrive in sudden leaps but through steady cycles of learning, sharing, and refining.
In that sense, tutoring is not just part of my university experience as a casual job for someone who did well at school. It has become a learning experience for me: to approach life as a perpetual classroom, where each interaction is an opportunity to both teach and to learn.

Teg Philmara