Friends

Pablo is a dear friend that is the reason I decided to become a teacher at a residential facility right after I graduated college. I remember the first time I did an observation on his classroom. Each classroom had little booths that you could sit in and watch the class through a one way mirror and here what was going on over a speaker. I spent hours watching. The amount of control he had over his students that were fresh from juvenile or area mental psych wards was impressive and I knew I wanted to be a teacher in that type of environment. I picked up many of my classroom management techniques from him and still use them now in a public school setting. He's always been there for me even after I left the facility and I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to perform our ceremony but him.

He recently proposed to his beautiful girlfriend Catina and she said yes. They will be getting married sometime this July in St. Louis. Congratulations to both of you.



My good friend Rob and I met while teaching together at a middle school in House Springs, Missouri. I had just quit from my job at the residential facility. It was the most rewarding job I've ever had and sadly, the most emotionally damaging. I taught there and part of the job was to expect to get hurt both physically and mentally. My classroom was the most violent one and it was in the basement of a locked down unit. Sometimes, I'd get jumped and just have to hope that someone upstairs was watching the cameras and on their way down to help me out. In the closing months that I was there, it became very dangerous. I knew I had to get out so I quit. I was unemployed for 4 months and would have loved to make a career change to anything else. I hated teaching at the time and had no desire to step back into a classroom. I was the teacher that walked in with his head down, not shaved, shirt untucked, lookin' a wreck from the night before. I was all kinds of unhealthy and the least of it being my mental game. I took the job out of necessity though and met a guy down the hall that would bring out the best in me and my teaching. I love being a teacher now and I definitely owe the fact that I still have a classroom to you Rob. If we hadn't met, I would be doing anything but this and I'm sure I'd be single.

Rob and his lovely wife Shannon were married just before Thanksgiving this year. I wasn't able to make the ceremony but I wish you both the best and I'm happy you found each other. You both deserve good things.