Out of My League

I get to go back to work tomorrow! I don’t have to go back to work… I get to go back to work. Okay… I have to go back. Wells Fargo and my wife say I have to go back.

That is not why I go back… I go back because I get to. I get to do what many people on the face of this earth only dream of… I get to make a difference.

Four years ago I was standing in the hallway of Birdville High School talking to a parent of an incoming 9th grader. He didn’t know me… I didn’t know him. He wanted some special treatment for his daughter. He had spoken to her counselor and her assistant principal… and didn’t get what he wanted. I was his next stop.

He only wanted his daughter to take six classes instead of the required seven. With her selection of classes this would not allow her to have an open class at either end of the day… the opening would be smack dab in the middle. He only wanted her to take six classes because that seventh one… the one in question… she couldn’t find anything that interested her. I felt for her.

I told Dad that school board policy required all 9th graders to take seven classes… but I would look at her schedule to see what we could do. Before I got the chance… he called me a paper pushing bureaucrat… A PAPER PUSHING BEURACRAT…

Obviously Mr. Man (not his real name) had never been to my office… paper wasn’t pushed… it sat… gathering dust… until it was needed… or there was nothing else to do. I was not a bureaucrat… I see the world in shades of gray… not black and white… policy smolicy… we have to look out for the best interests of kids. He didn’t know me…

No… he didn’t know me… but he just assumed that I was just some old has been coach who got into administration… I was never a has been coach… I made a difference in the lives of kids on the athletic field… bureaucrat…

I tried to find a solution for Mr. Man… couldn’t find one that was acceptable to him… couldn’t find one that would fit for his daughter… but I looked… I looked hard.

As I start my second full year at the helm of my elementary school… I continue to have that hope… that I can make a difference in the life of a kid… or 450 of them.

I GET to work with a wonderful staff. Count them all up and there are about 70 of them… I hired 1/2 of them… not 35… half of one. In my time there I have hired only a part time position. No one ever leaves!

I GET to go to school and make a difference. I don’t push paper… (it just sits on my desk… unless you are reading this Dr. Waddell… it is filed neatly and in triplicate where applicable)… I am not a bureaucrat.

In my district we love to look at data… we add it up… we subtract it… divide it… use some weird formulas to figure stuff out with it…

One thing that data doesn’t have is a face… the kids have faces… and for that I am truly grateful…

I GET to go back to work tomorrow… and I am so excited… I can’t wait…

doubt…

despair…

rejection…

dejection…

self-doubt…

despondency…

I cleaned out the garage Tuesday afternoon…

the phone never rang…

I dug five post holes on Wednesday… by hand…

blisters…

erected five posts in concrete in those holes on Thursday…

blisters…

putting up a fence on Friday…

calm…

peace…

assurance…

self-assurance…

work begins again on Monday…

exemplary again…

… let me give you about twenty thousand words…

I was at Disney World this week. I stood in line with my family for about an hour to see Fantasmic. It was an hour wait. It was hot. It was humid. A small intimate crowd joined us. If you can say that a crowd of about 8,000 is small and intimate. The show was great… but this is about something else.

On the way in we heard many languages. French, German, English, Portuguese, and Pig-Latin. (I said a few words of it so I could say that I heard it.) Many different people from many different places… but it all started with a small group of people on the left most edge of the crowd.

Several of the people in that area stood and raised their hands over their heads and made a cheering sound. It didn’t do much. They tried it again. A little better response. The third time… the third time was the charm. They started it again and the crowd caught on. A wave had been spawned.

It rolled across the crowd from one end to the other. It rolled over (through) large and small humans. It united a crowd from the four corners of the earth.

The wave carried on for several minutes before it became tiresome and started to fade. The intensity getting less at each passing. Then… something happened.

Several people in the far right corner of the crowd stood and cheered sending the wave back to it’s originators. This wave was bigger and stronger than the last several. This was new and exciting. The reverse wave.

The reverse wave didn’t have the stamina of the original direction. It only lasted about half the time. The newness gone.

Do we all speak different languages? Yes! Do we have common things that tie us together? Yes! You can say several things separate us from other animals. Several things put us higher on the food chain (pecking order). Is the wave one of them?

I think God smiles when he looks down at us and sees us doing the wave.

The Wave

I have the best job in the world. I get to see the world through the eyes of kids. I am amazed at the wonder they see. I am amazed at the hope and passion they possess. I am truly amazed at how pure things really are for them.

We are leaving on Monday morning, at 6AM I might add, for a trip to Disney World. I (43) have been once and loved it. I went to Disney Land once but that doesn’t count. My beautiful bride (37) has been three times. Our eldest (13) has been twice. Our middle child (12) has been once. And, our sweet precious baby love child (5) has never been. He is so cited [sic].

Let me tell you why…

rj-and-disney 

(click above to see video)