It was here that I realized instruction was my calling
There are always events that color how one builds their life and their career.
One of my bigger milestones would be leaving the Air Force Academy Preparatory School, not by my own doing, but because I was disenrolled due to academics. Math wasn’t my thing so I ran into a lot of trouble there. And I had to reconstruct what it was that I wanted to do. I was essentially given direction by the commander of the preparatory school who knew it was my desire to become an Air Force officer and get into the Air Force Academy—at that time. Even though I had to leave the preparatory school, I could enlist, take night classes for math to raise my math grades, then I could become one of 85 active duty airmen a year taken into the Academy. I followed those directions to the letter. I left the prep school in December of 76, enlisted immediately after, started school in the fall of 77 and was able to get into the Air Force Academy by the spring of 78. But, I lasted one year before I got thrown out again for my math grades. On top of that, we were getting into heavy sciences anyway. It took a while to recover from this; as I had wanted to be in the Academy so much. Once I left the Academy, I finished my enlistment and applied for school.
I went to Colorado State University for three years and graduated. I then went to Japan to do one year of teaching English in Japanese schools. I had always wanted to go to college, and I’ve always had an interest in Japan. When I started at CSU I had planned on doing ROTC and rejoining the Air Force. But, I decided that it wasn’t something that I wanted to do anymore. I had wanted to go to the Academy to become an Air Force officer, but once the Academy was out of the picture the desire of being in the Air Force went away because it was based on reaching the Academy.
It took another year back in the states after a year away to really determine what it was that I wanted to do. I decided to go back to school for a degree in East Asian studies. Grad school was my next big milestone. I worked through TA-ships up to the point of identifying the focus of my dissertation.
When I came to SPU, I found myself once again in a crisis situation, and it must’ve been my stubbornness that kept me grounded. Working full time at SPU and still finishing up my dissertation was a handful. But, it was here that I realized instruction was my calling. I’ve taught at other schools as well since my original arrival here, but an individual at SPU invited me to come back, and so I have.
