This week we celebrate both National Nurses Week and Teacher Appreciation Week. While both professions are well deserving of recognition in their own right, perhaps it is fitting that they are being celebrated at the same time. Nurses and teachers have two of the most demanding, exhausting and thankless jobs imaginable. Yet the personal rewards can be some of the greatest.

The love for their craft is only surpassed by the love they have for those they serve, be it patients or students. Both nurses and teachers spend their days, and often their nights, saving and changing lives. They often do their best work under the most difficult of circumstances, and those who benefit often do not realize the importance of the care they received until it is over. The lives they touch are often better off because of the nurse or teacher who gave more than they were asked to give.

There are certainly professions more glamorous and financially rewarding than nursing and teaching, but it is hard to think of many others whose benefit to their fellow man is so profound. It is truly a special person who will dedicate his or her life to such a noble calling. This week, we thank the men and women who have chosen to do just that.