Lorie Rost always knew she wanted to be a teacher.
"One of the first things that I wrote in second grade was all about a career, and I knew I wanted to be a teacher," Rost said. "It's been my only choice of career."
As a little girl, she loved playing school. As a teenager, she loved babysitting and tutoring. Instead of taking a study hall in high school, she went to the resource room in her school and taught students for an hour each day.
"It's just something I've always known I wanted to do," she said. "It's innate, I think. For some people, it truly is."
Rost, who is retiring June 30, has served more than 31 years in education. She began her career in 1989 as a sixth-grade teacher at Warrensburg Middle School, right before graduating from the University of Central Missouri.
In 1994, she joined the Jefferson City School District as a teacher at Thorpe Gordon Elementary School where she taught fifth grade for five years and second grade for another five years.
"I loved all my years teaching," she said. "I still stay in contact with those first-year students that I had in Warrensburg."
After teaching for 15 years, she decided she wanted a leadership position. She became the principal at Cedar Hill Elementary School in Jefferson City, where the children were amazed she always knew everybody's name.
"I had some great relationships with kids," she said. "They need to know someone at school wants them to be there, knows their name and is excited to see them every day."
After serving as Cedar Hill principal for 13 years, Rost was hired as the Jefferson City district's assistant superintendent of elementary education in 2017 after being encouraged to work at the district level.
Looking back, certain memories from her career stand out the most.
"There's some funny stories, and there's some sad stories that I think have helped make me the person that I am today," Rost said.
One particular funny memory is when there was a tornado during a field day at Cedar Hill, and they had inflatable jump houses in the gym while tornado sirens were going off.
"Four different times we took cover that day, feeding snow cones to our kindergartners and trying to feed them lunch while they're taking cover," Rost said.
One experience she said will stand out to her forever is when a set of twins who were in foster care came into her classroom. They had been found in a trash can, digging for food.
She built a connection with those two boys and can still remember their names many years later.
"Just having the experience of working with some really at-risk children - that stands out to me - being able to reach out and have relationships with the kids," Rost said. "It's all about the kids."
Rost's career has allowed her to help children most in need, starting from individual students in the classroom to the bigger picture at the building and district level.
She's built strong relationships with these children and ensured they have what they need - whether that's food or love - and she's put classroom and building structures in place to make sure teachers and principals understand trauma in children and the importance of relationship- building.
"That is where my heart is - with some of our most at-risk kids and being able to provide them with relationships and what they need," Rost said.
It's the children who were the most challenging that Rost remembers the most fondly.
"I truly love them," she said. "I've said that to kids, I say that to adults, I've said that to people I work with - 'I love you and what you do and who you are.'"
She asks the students, "What does Mrs. Rost say to you?"
"I love you," they reply.
"Sometimes our hardest kids need to hear it more often," Rost said. "Everybody needs to hear it, but those are the kids that stand out."
Rost said her motivation comes from the teachers and students and seeing their success.
"Making sure we follow through and put things in place steadily, with purpose, with high expectations - that's what drives me," she said.
There hasn't been a day in her 32-year career that she didn't want to go to work, she said.
"I always wanted to go to work because I wanted to see the kids, I wanted to work with teachers," she said.
While it's been challenging, she's had a fulfilling career that's paid off by seeing improvements in the district and success in teachers and students.
"I will never say it's not hard work, but it's always motivating to want to be better, want your kids to do better, want your teachers to be able to succeed and serve the kids what they need," Rost said. "That's what drives me - and it always has."
Rost said she's proud of everything the district has accomplished during her 27 years there.
"The years have flown by, and I've seen so much growth," she said.
One of the best parts of her career has been seeing children grow into successful adults and seeing what they accomplish - especially those who go into teaching.
Rost said she'll always remember the "great people along the way" who have made it worthwhile, including students, parents, coworkers and community members.
If she had the chance to do one thing differently, Rost said, she would've been a teacher longer. While she's loved her leadership positions, she misses being in the classroom and interacting with the same students each day.
"That's the best part of this job now is I get into all the buildings and I can talk to kids and see what they're doing, but that connection with kids and teaching them and seeing their successes individually, I miss that," she said.
Rost's time in the classroom isn't over. As she retires, she'll have other opportunities to teach.
It's always been a goal of hers to teach teachers or future teachers, and she's considering becoming a substitute teacher or volunteering in the school setting.
"I haven't decided yet, but my time working with kids is not finished," she said. "I don't want to break that connection with education."