The purpose of this paper is to chronicle the shift in how language educators are thinking about culture teaching between "culturalist" and "interculturalist" orientations. This transformation is intertwined with my own personal and professional journey from language student to language teacher and to teacher educator. I detail specific classroom practices consistent with the "interculturalist" orientation. In reading this journey, junior educators can reflect on how one's ideology of teaching is closely linked with one's personal and professional trajectory. That is, life experiences outside of language teaching intersect with our teacher formation to make us the teachers we are at present.