So there have been a few changes in my life, and with apologies to David Bowie, I have turned and faced the strange. Certainly, the ones I made will not make me a financially richer man, but in terms of work satisfaction, dividends are being paid already. For that one person who followed my other blog, I apologize for the change. Since it was logged in via an email address that is no longer active (more on that coming), I had to change.
I’m back and in a new position. A few updates, all of which will be expended upon in later posts:
-My daughter, her process being the impetus for my first blog, ended up at Furman University. It was the right fit, and her process was handled well… mainly by her. She is going through the typical first year issues, but is overall enjoying her time in the south.
-I retired from public education and moved to Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, NJ; it’s an all-male Lasallian high school. I reached the magic number that the state of New Jersey asks for in terms of retirement benefits, and took the opportunity for a career re-boot.
Through my daughter’s college process and search, I constantly preached that change is good: that you have to be open to taking a risk and putting yourself in a position where you could fail miserably. Well, I did that: at well below the New Jersey retirement age, with a child going off to her freshman year, another one following in three years, and my wife changing districts, it was off the reservation I went. I’m one month in, but I can tell you that the risk is already producing rewards.
One of the attractive things about moving to CBA is the ability to teach at college counseling class for the juniors. This class runs every other cycle (don’t ask me to explain a cycle schedule), and is a mandatory class for all juniors. We work to demystify the application and admission process, as much as possible. We are using a plan that was developed by our current director, and updating it with a curriculum I was fortunate to work on with Patrick O’Connor over the summer. When the students leave school in June, they will (hopefully) have a solid understanding of the college process, and also will have their Common Application as done as possible. It’s a common-sense class and program and is surprisingly easy to implement. The problem in other schools was getting the administrators off of the “but we can’t fit that in” bus.
I have made a commitment to myself, and to those who may be interested in what I am writing, to write more. I do miss the process of producing content; it helps me clear my thoughts and hopefully you can find it interesting, helpful, humorous, annoying, or perhaps all three.
More to come next week. I promise.
