With the close of last school year, I completed my 30th campaign in education. Each of those years has been filled with joy and sorrow, challenges and successes, ups and downs and a ton of stories worth sharing. My (True) Life in Education Thus Far will detail 30 or so of those stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed living (most) of them!
FRIENDSHIP
APRIL 19, 2023
My life has been forever changed by the people I have worked with in the three schools I have served in my career.
As a young teacher at Bishop McNamara High School, I hoped I would be in education for my entire life, but I did not know that I would. Signing my first contract at the school, I had no idea how long I would stay there. I certainly did not know it would be only two years. Those two years set my foundation as a professional educator and provided me friendships that have endured to this day. The friendship and mentorship of these people put me towards the career that would define my entire life.
Someone with a better statistical mind than I possess (I did take stats in my teacher preparation course work) could calculate the number of different people with whom I worked during 20 years at Regis Jesuit. It is a big number to be sure. What the statisticians could not tell us is that I met my wife there, I made the best friend I will ever have there – the godfather of two of my children – I formed connections that influenced who I am. I had mentors and competitors, compatriots and allies. These people I journeyed with at Regis Jesuit were my life, we were in every part of it and remain so to this day.
In these (God, I must admit) later years of my career at Mullen, I have again been blessed with meeting and befriending incredible people whose presence in my life has made me a far better teacher, administrator and person. I acknowledge and embrace that I am now humbled to be a mentor. I have found at Mullen a friend who I know will be in my life forever. I have laughed and loved and smiled with these newer friends and I know that these relationships are as important to me as any I have ever had.
The joy of working with friends cannot be underestimated. I have been working with friends for 30 plus years.