Prior to the smack on the head

Who I was
Prior to the accident there were many ways in which I could have been described by others. Not really meaning to, I pretty much exhausted everyone’s vocabulary of descriptive terms for myself. That means even the range of profane ones were used up (You know Kevin you're a ...). I have been going through a series of neurological evaluations and have had to say what I was like before the injury. Well, here it goes, and for those of you who know me before I smacked my head, let me know if I am missing anything.

I am a mathematics teacher. I have been honored and blessed all my life to teach algebra and geometry to students of all abilities and ages. In doing so I never really considered what I did a job. It was a passion and I loved every minute. In my classroom "I" was the class clown. I had more energy and was more enthused then those I taught. I loved life and everyone around me. I think I did pretty decently educating others. I know I tried to never teach two years the same and to the best of my knowledge, never did.

I also loved sports, played sports, and coached. My other passion – soccer. I threw myself into everything I did, held nothing back, and expected my athletes to do the same. The philosophy we all adopted while getting crushed every year in soccer was “NEVER GIVE UP & NEVER GIVE IN”. I loved those guys! We went from the absolute worst in Polk County to third in the county tournament and second in the district tournament.

I still remember those games, the brawl with Mulberry and Chris never dropping the ball. I still remember Shane scoring the winning goal against Winter Haven. I still remember Jose Z’s first rainbow at Clermont. I remember Sterling being so tiny and yet so tenacious and feared at defense. I remember Henrick bending a ball for the first time and my guys stopping to stare. Great stuff – great times – a life full of fond memories.

As a teacher I gave and expected nothing less in the classroom. Therefore coming in on a Saturday to give extra assistance – no problem, I was there. I was also the school tech specialist and network administrator. Beside my math classes I was running around the campus prepping computers, repairing computers, solving computer related problems etc or (blah – blah – blah). I was also working at the local community college as adjunct instructor for math and beginning teacher courses. Yup, I was now teaching people who wanted to be teachers. (Scary thought isn’t it – cloning gone bad).

So that’s me. Endless energy, boundless enthusiasm, assertive, proactive, never say never, believes can’t is a dirty four letter word, and never will say no to doing and giving more. Oops, I forget, wildly fun prankster who cared for others, flippantly irreverent towards school “rules”, yet would always do what I was asked – I never had to be told. I was always on the front lines for students, their parents, and willing to take the heat with administrators for the right thing, not the politically correct thing.

More to come