I am fed up with feeling like I have to justify why I became an instructor and why I am NOT building hours to work in the airlines and why I really (still) at this moment have no desire to head that way.
Stumpyotoole, you have absolutely NO need, obligation, or requirement to explain yourself to anyone, least of all one who would question your motives for being an instructor.
If indeed you're content and happy to instruct (as more would do well to be), then you're to be commended. If only others felt the same way. Instructing is a calling, and teaching an art. Instructors administer a syllabus, where as teachers enlighten and transmit knowledge and enhance understanding. Many are instructors, few are teachers. The world does not need more instructors, but is in dire need of teachers. More on point, the world is in desperate need of teachers with a desire to be teachers. Equally on point, the world definitely can do without those who do not desire to teach, yet still endeavor to do so.
If teaching is a calling (and indeed it is) and you hear this calling and carry the burden gladly, then this not only speaks well of you, but you may rest assured that you are in your place. Perhaps those who do not understand have yet to find their place, and cannot see what's plainly before their eyes: an individual who has met and accepted the challenge of teaching with open arms and is fulfilling his own destiny. What you're offering is so much more than a short term service for a few dollars. You're opening each student up to the sky.
Man for millenia has promised what he could not deliver...the sun the sky, and the moon. The earth, as well. You are in a position to deliver to each soul who reaches out to you one of those elements; you give away the sky. You imprint upon the student the tools and the reason to take ownership of the sky with safety, surety, and the privilege to be there. In all the history of the world, only a few have ever had this privilege, though countless generations have wondered the early and looked skyward to the birds and the clouds with an unsatisfied hunger. Here you are in a position to give of yourself to others to feed that hunger and deliver what mankind has always so desperately desired.
Don't strain or stress that others might question your motivation in so doing. You're under no obligation to explain yourself away to any man or woman. So long as you feel the calling and you have answered, your reason and your reply has been made. It's enough.