The Return of the Blog?!?

Hello-

I know that it has been a long time since I said I would "Be Right Back", but in the grand scheme of things it really hasn't been that long.  Two years have passed since I left the blogosphere and a lot has happened.  Major life changes distracted me from my writing.  The first one involved a changing of schools.  My high-school quarterback became the head football coach at another school in the county, which also happened to be the school my wife taught at.  So I packed up all my stuff at East Forsyth and moved it over to Ronald W. Reagan High School - a school ironically named after the president that wanted to abolish the Department of Education.

Ronald W. Reagan High School in Pfafftown, NC

Changing schools really shouldn't have messed up my writing, except for the challenges that went along with it.  Instead of teaching Biology, I agreed to teacher Honors Chemistry and Physical Science.  While they may seem like similar courses, they bring very different clientele and so I faced two new preps for 90 minutes a day.  I felt like a first-year teacher again, but I enjoyed explaining new topics and trying new experiments.  Most importantly, it gave me a chance to practice my Chemistry and Physics problems for a later part of the story.

Me (left) and my assistant holding the first championship trophy in Reagan history!

I planned to resume my blogging at the end of the long, difficult school year, but a new opportunity presented itself.  The wrestling coach left, and I took over that duty.  I had been an assistant wrestling coach for 5 years, but used changing schools as cover for a break.  I now controlled my own Wrestling program, blogging would have to wait.  The previous coach left a mess of things, so a lot of my summer and fall centered around cleaning up and preparing (at the same time I started coaching a new position with the football program - defensive backs).  We had a great wrestling season which included several school records and the first tournament championship in school history.  But another change was coming.

In 2006, I graduated with a Masters of Arts in Teaching and a plan to teach science and coach football for the rest of my life.  Unfortunately, our school system, our state government, and many other factors sent me in search of other opportunities.  I hadn't finished my first year before I started looking at anthropology programs online ready to move to London - we were watching Ape to Man from the History Channel.

My classroom skeleton doing some research on the computer.

Instead, I decided to go to medical school so I studied for the MCAT and readied my applications.  I did well on the MCAT earning 30 points (80th percentile), but scored low on the Physical Science section.  Combined with a GPA of a B+, I never even went to an interview.  So I buckled down, took the MCAT again, received the exact same scores.  I still applied to several medical schools, but nothing ever came to it.  I began teaching Physics to help my Physical Science skills, but nothing seemed in interest the medical schools.  Eventually, I stopped applying and settled into my role as a high school science teacher.

When I came to Reagan High School, I fully intended it to be my last stop.  I could stay there for 25 more years with my wife until I retired.  It was an okay gig, but the same reasons I wanted to leave East made me search for something else.  When one of my college roommates who is now a dentist in Louisianna offered to write a recommendation, I figured I would give medical school one more chance.  Still, no luck.  As I was turning 30 soon, I knew that I had only one more chance to change careers.

This time, I decided to take the PCAT.  It was similar to the MCAT, but with more chemistry.  I did some studying and went to take the test.  My high school geometry teacher signed me in on test day and gave me my results afterwards.  I folded the paper, said good-bye and went to my car.  Finally I checked my scores to see that I had scored in the 98th percentile!  I was ecstatic!  With scores like this I should definitely apply to some schools.  

I applied to Creighton University and to the University of North Carolina.  I didn't really expect much to happen after all my rejections to Medical Schools, but BOTH schools wanted me to come for interviews.  At this point, wrestling season was getting underway and my travelling abilities were becoming limited.  After a little work, I took the Tuesday before Thanksgiving off from work at travelled to Chapel Hill for an interview.  Interestingly, when I decided to stop by student stores for a T-shirt and happened to run into two former students.  The interview went smoothly.  We talked about professionalism and the future of pharmacy.  We toured the facility and labs and they said that they would let us know it two to three weeks.  There was a tour of the overall campus next, but I spent five years at UNC and I had to get to the first wrestling event of the season in two hours.

The Eshelman School of Pharmacy at UNC-CH is ranked #2 in the country!

Everything seemed normal during Thanksgiving and the next week.  I taught my classes and ran wrestling practices and on the next Wednesday we went to Starmount High School for a wrestling match.  While the team was warming up, I happened to check my emails, which included an acceptance to the Eshelman School of Pharmacy next Fall!!!  I had finally done it!  I had been accepted into a pharmacy program after rejection after rejection over 5 years had passed.  With my self-imposed last chance, I was going to Pharmacy School!  I was going to one of the top pharmacy schools in the country.

Well, that brings us to today.  I have quit my job at Reagan, as did my wife.  We sold the house we bought a year ago.  Now we are just waiting for the closing date and getting ready to move … again.  It hasn’t been easy.  It is a lot of change not just for me but my wife.  She has been amazing.  She loved the house we just bought and her job at Reagan, but she is giving it all up so that I can become a pharmacist.  I love my wife very much and owe her so much more for giving me this opportunity.  I could not do any of this without her.

 

My wife won't let me use her picture, so this is from our trip to Rome!

I start my program this fall, but I do have to take a Summer School prerequisite before I get there.  I don’t know if I will have too much free time, but I hope I have the opportunity to blog.  Not only has a lot happened in our lives, but also a lot has happened in the world of science and education.  The state politics of North Carolina alone could give me plenty of writing material.

Thank you for taking the time to read this far.  I hope to bring you more later.