VIEW FROM THE FRONT OFFICE
The
view from the front office is quickly coming to an end. The reality of my
pending retirement is starting to feel real. I’ve thought about this last
article for a few months, but I find it hard to believe it’s time. Time sure
does fly by when you are having fun.
It’s
not just a job, it’s an adventure! This adage from the US Navy says it all.
Over the last 33 years (17 at E-M), I have worked alongside some wonderful
people and watched students grow into mature, quality young adults. I could say
that some of my students are now “older” adults. No matter what, I have never
looked at it as just a job. It truly has been an adventure - an adventure that
I never anticipated.
Career
day/career exploration in the “old” days was not like it is now. My early career
thoughts included truck driver, chemical engineer, nuclear engineer, electrical
engineer, mathematician, and computer network analyst. I was three years into college before I
switched to education, which added another three years to my undergraduate career.
Once I was finally in my own classroom, I realized working with kids was my
calling. It took some time (and challenges) for me to find my passion. I was
all in, which sometimes put my family on the back burner, but they supported me
and joined me in this passion. We have always stressed to our own - follow your
passion! If you enjoy what you do, then everything else falls into place.
As
I reminisce over the last 17 years, I hope to have positively influenced the
students who have graced the halls of Exeter-Milligan Public School. As we go
through life, in the end, we will not be judged on what we have, but on what we
have done with what we have. I know that
some of the decisions I have made have not pleased everyone. But, in every instance, the prevailing
thought influencing every decision has been, “Is this what’s best for the
students?” My ultimate goal has always
been to provide a positive, safe learning environment for students and staff. This is one goal that I can mark as
accomplished!
I am not a conventional
administrator who looks to bark (or bite) before anything else. If students are treated with respect, one
will receive that respect in return. We like to have fun, but we all know when
it’s time to get down to business. Not
once in my 33 years in education did I wake up in the morning and not want to
go to school. Being with the teachers and kids was not a job to me. It was a
chance to spend time with my extended family and learn as the day went. I hope
that everyone who has passed through these hallowed halls has learned from me
as much as I learned from them!
This
is a bittersweet article. As I put on our graduation cards, “What in life
appears to be an end is a new beginning.”
This is my last article for the Timbertracks and I have not always
finished them on time (this is where I tell students to do as I say and not as
I do). Twenty-seven years ago when I started my administrative career, I was
this bright-eyed new principal (with more hair, too) who had big ideas of how I
would save the world. As time passed, I
realized that some of my ideas and thoughts were a bit unorthodox, but overall,
I wanted to make sure that students had a great time as we went along on our
knowledge journey. That’s how I looked at it - this was a journey that all of
us were going on, and we might as well make the most of it. As teachers and
administrators, we are only the guides along the way.
As
we look to the future, let this little phrase help guide our decisions: “Is
this what’s best for the students?” If the answer is yes, then do it—get ‘r
done. If not, then find a way to make it beneficial for the students. I will
wrap this last article up with a few morsels that I have shared over time and a
quote I take true to heart. Thanks for the memories!
…
Let's be careful out there!
Build it and he will come
Fair is what you take your animals to in the summer
Ease his pain
If I was any better, I'd be twins
Finer than a frog hair
Just another day in paradise
Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and lawn
darts
I have truly lived a dream!
“One
hundred years from now, it won't matter what car I drove, what kind of house I
lived in,
how much I had in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like,
but, the world may be a little better because I was important in the life of a
child.”
