Life as I know it

This probably should have been my post for Thanksgiving but I have a lot to be thankful for this past year.  I can sum up my year in three words: Patience and humility.  I have learned so much about patience from waiting for the beginning of my career.  I have always been told patience is a virtue but I never realized how true that statement is until this year.  I waited 9 months to finally begin my career.  This was such a blessing.  It made me realize how right teaching is for me, I couldn't see myself doing anything else.  I am so glad to be out of sales.  I have learned a great deal about patience from dealing with these kids.  Middle school kids are amazing but they do the stupidest stuff to make me pull my hair out.  Good things come to those who are patient.  Losing your temper in a class full of middle schoolers does nothing.

Sadly, basketball has just ended.  We have had our best season at Brockbank in over a decade.  I am so proud of my young men who fought every minute of every game and practice.  It has been so much fun to coach these guys.  The guys learned a lot about basketball, but I think they learned a lot about character and being representatives for the school and their community.  We had a lot of learning opportunities.  When we were at an away game, the crowd was taunting our boys even though we were up by 20.  One of our boys got so pissed off, he turned to the crowd and threw up the double bird.  It was an awesome teaching moment for our kids.  We lost in our final game and it was heart breaking.  It was painful to watch our 10 guys in so much pain over a loss.  But I think the pain they have this year will be replaced next year when we come back to beat our entire district.  Off season training starts after break.  Go Braves!

The Career Has Begun

It's been a couple of months since I've updated this.  A lot has been going on in the life of Mr. Walker.  I have been in Salt Lake City for over two months now.  Time has flown since being down here.  My career choice is the perfect profession for me.  My kids are the greatest things on Earth.  Some of them are a big pain in the ars but for the most part these kids are great.  I work in a school with a lot of kids who live in poverty.  I'm shocked at the amount of diversity in my school.  We have a lot of Hispanics and a lot of Poly's.  Who knew Utah had so much diversity.  Well at least Magna has a lot.  My new interest is soccer.  A few of the girls on the soccer team are in my PE classes so I have been going to the games.  After 24 years of hating soccer, I am now converted now that I somewhat understand the rules. 

I have gotten a couple of different responses from the kids.  My Utah Studies classes love my class.  On the other hand, my PE classes think I am "the meanest teacher EVER!"  My PE classes are always complaining because I make them actually work.  I secretly love being called the meanest teacher ever.  The other teachers say it means I am doing my job well.  After two weeks of school, one of the trouble makers in one class was transferred to my class because I have a lot of structure.  He's not a trouble maker anymore.  Because of this, I have had to deal with discipline issues of other teachers.  I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.  We have an amazing Fitness Center for a Junior High.  Unfortunately it is empty every period of the day.  I have started an after school Fitness Club and have gotten a great number of kids to join for the first year.  Every day these kids do something to amaze me, good or bad. 

A New Beginning

July was a very eventful month for me.  I have been spending the past seven months looking for employment any where in the nation just to get me out of Montana.  I have filled out over 50 applications to various school districts throughout the States and other sales companies.  After seven months of no responses or failed interviews, two different opportunities presented themselves to me within a matter of a week.  I have been selling cell phones the past year and quarter, so I decided to apply for a cell phone company.  I was offered a job as a store manager for an AT&T store in Jackson, Wyoming.  I accepted that job offer with no hesitation just to get myself out of Montana.  Although I did accept the offer, I was never really excited about moving to Jackson and selling cell phones.  Once I accepted that job, I had a feeling that I was not going to end up in Jackson so I never really started to pack even though I was supposed to be there in a week and a half.

After a half a week of doing nothing, I received a random phone call from Brockbank Junior High School in Magna, Utah.  The principal told me that I was on a short list of candidates and wanted to interview.  I had an impression to race down to Magna to interview in person rather than over the tele.  Turned out to be the best decision of the year.  After work, my dad and I raced down to Salt Lake City.  We arrived in SLC around 3:30 in the AM.  We got a couple hours and sleep and then I had to wake up for the big interview.  After the interview, I didn't really know where I stood. I had no idea whether or not I would be asked to take the job.  We went over to Gateway after my interview and started to shop around.  We found my favorite store, Foot Locker, and looked for a new pair of shoes.  As I was trying my shoes on, my lovely iPhone 4 rang loudly.  It was a 435 number that I did not recognize so I answered, "This is Andrew."  A happy voice responded, "Andrew, this is the principal at Brockbank Junior High and we would like to offer you the position....."  I have no idea what was said after that but I do remember wanting to leap into the air and start yelling.  Then I realized I was in a public store and didn't want to look like a fool. 

Anyways, instead of heading to Jackson to sell cell phones, I am now the Utah Studies and PE teacher at Brockbank Junior High School in Magna.  School starts in three weeks and I have to be at new teacher training next week.  Life is grand.  It is such a relief to know I can use my degree after all.  I no longer feel like I wasted five years of my life going to BYU-I.  Now I just feel bad for those kids who have to sit through my Utah Studies course, listening to a teacher who knows nothing about Utah History .  Salt Lake City (aka Disneyland for the LDS) here I come!  

10+ Things I MIss About You

Have you ever wondered if it is greener on the other side of the pasture?  I have often wondered that and have pursued that greener side.  In most cases I have found that the other side is not necessarily greener until a change of heart and change of mind occurs.  For instance, when I graduated high school I thought that college was going to be some amazing life changing event.  This was not the case during my first few semesters of college.  I used to think that life in Montana was so much better.  It took me four semesters to finally appreciate college life and found that the college pasture was much greener than Montana.  The more time I spent in college, the more I began to think graduation was going to be the most amazing thing in my life.  In all honesty, graduating college and achieving a Bachelor's degree is pretty cool.  However, now that I am graduated I am back in Montana and right now the pasture isn't so green.  I am still waiting for that change of heart and change of mind.  This past week is definitely a positive because we have finally strung together a full week of sunshine and ZERO rain.  Which brings me to my 10+ things I miss about the previous side of the pasture:

1) My college degree was earned with little to no effort.  I failed tests but I made up for them during the last week of school with my writing talents. (Copy, paste, citation)

2) At least once a week a lovely female was coerced into cooking me an awesome meal

3) Little to worry about, no bills to pay

4) Finals week.  As stressful as the week was, it was an amazing feeling to come through with a 10 page essay on the Civil War or a 25 page essay on Texas Western Basketball in the final hours of school and earn A's and B's.

5) I miss how stupid the Honor Code is.  No shorts, no hats, no beards or facial hair (for me it was no whiskers), midnight curfew for full grown adults, and no swearing (that was a tough one).

6) Ramires at 3 in the AM and the BGs that followed, Denny's midnight runs to I.F., and SNOASIS with Ice Cream in the bottom.

7) I miss the kid in the front row of every class who was so eager to learn.  Put your hand down and stop participating.  The Learning Model is garbage!  You have to listen to people you don't want to for most of the period instead of the teacher who is paid to educate us.

8) Old Man Coates' class.  The old guy can't teach worth sheesh but he always passed me along so he wouldn't have to see me again.

9) My married friends.  Although many married people at BYU-I Do are completely insane, overbearing, and annoying, some of them were normal and weren't awkward to be around.  Thank you Beckstrands, Bolens, Goulds, Perkins, Rosses, Salmons, and Serras.

10) The basketball league.  I caused a lot of trouble in that league but it was worth the trouble and the fun.  Being kicked out of the league twice, calling grown men pussy's and them being offended, fights in practices, full grown women bickering like they were in high school, being suspended for spitting on the floor and not being suspended for dropping the F bomb, and probably one of the most memorable moments was JJ chewing out Kimmie.  That kid is legit.

I could go on but I am getting tired and want to continue reading His Father's Son: Earl and Tiger Woods.

Spring is finally here!

This winter has been the longest and most drawn out winter I have ever experienced in either Idaho or Montana.  We have finally seen consecutive days of sunshine in Montana.  Consecutive days of sunshine means more golf.  Spring is a time for new beginnings and new life.  This year I have taken on the challenge of learning how to shape a golf ball left to right and right to left.  My scores have risen a lot but eventually the hard work will pay off and I will be able to hit the trajectory I am wanting.  I've had nothing to do this year, so I have spent most of my free money on golf equipment.  White is the trend right now, so I've gone mostly white now.  My driver and fairway wood are white and I am in the process of regripping all my clubs to have white grips. 

This time of year makes me want to stay in Montana.  With the way employment looks for History and PE teachers, I may stay in Montana longer.  The more fellow graduates I talk to, the better I feel.  Someone put in 94 applications before getting a job offer.  I'm no where near that amount of applications, so I should get on that maybe.  Seeing that there are no offers on the table for teaching, my possibilities have been growing.  Grad school, another bachelor's degree, move up in Wireless Advocates, or just pick up, move somewhere and start brand new.  Right now the last option sounds like the most fun and challenging.  There is one thing I do know, I have to get back into coaching.  It's been over a year since I have coached, put together schemes, and game planned.  I miss everything about basketball. 

At least someone get's to enjoy the spring and sun.

It's been awhile...

It has been a couple months since my last blog.  The past couple months have been pretty uneventful.  Back in January I did buy a new car finally.  It was definitely time to get rid of the Daewoo and get my own vehicle.  I bought a 2009 Pontiac G6.  I really hate it when I hear the song "Fly like a G6" now.  

 

I continue to work at Costco selling cell phones.  It is good to know at the end of the day, I have helped old people use their Droid X's that they purchased for only $49.99 at Costco.  That was said in the most sarcastic tone you can possibly imagine.  It is unfortunate that I spent 11 semesters in college to sell cell phones for now.  The new year has been a roller coaster ride of emotion and feelings.  Grandpa is still in the hospital after open-heart surgery but in two days he finally gets to come home after nearly 4 months in the hospital.  It's been a stressful time in the family with my grandparents living with us.  

http://membershipwireless.com/index.cfm/go/shop/do/PhoneDetails/productId/3770

These are random thoughts that are poppping in my head.  Last week I went down to Rexburg, Logan, and Provo for a few days.  It was so good to be out of Montana and into warmer weather.  Rexburg has changed a lot for the better.  It was nice to see the results of why my college campus was torn up for my entire college career.  The BYUIC is pretty damn cool.  Later in the week I went to Logan to attend a teacher fair to find a job.  It was a good opportunity to talk with school districts in Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona.  Hopefully the teacher fair turns out to be a success with a job offer.  

Over the past couple months, I have gotten into a new hobby finally.  It is now acceptable for grown men to shoot each other with bb guns.  The guns they make are pretty realistic now.  I have a replica M4A1 and a replica sniper rifle now.  Both of those set me back a few bucks but it's something I can enjoy doing during summer months.

Winter has really drawn itself out this year.  It's the end of March and the snow has not melted off the golf courses yet.  So depressing considering I have bought new Nike Sasquatch Machspeed irons, TaylorMade Burner Superfast 2.0, and a new Titleist Vokey sand wedge.  Let's just say I am excited to hit a small white ball and chase after it into the woods.  

 

Being in Montana this winter has confirmed a lot of things.  Number 1: I AM GOING TO BE A SNOW BIRD STARTING NEXT YEAR.  I am tired of winter and snow so I really would love to be in the desert next winter and back here in the summer for golf and wakeboarding.  Number 2: SINGLE LIFE IN MONTANA IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC.  Number 3: OLD PEOPLE SHOULD NOT HAVE SMARTPHONES.  They're worse to teach than my 5th period Geography class at Greenspun.  Number 4: MONTANA IS ONLY GOOD THREE MONTHS OUT OF THE YEAR. 

Some more randomness and to end AndyCenter, the Top 10 random things in my head right now.

10) Chris Brown's new album, F.A.M.E. is really good and his song with Bieber is probably the best song on the album.  It's good, go buy it on iTunes for $1.29

9) Drumsticks are a delicious treat both the ice cream and chicken.  

8) Tiger Woods 12 comes out in less than a week, I feel like an 8th grader waiting for Call of Duty: Black Ops.

7) TaylorMade has really out done themselves with the white crown Burner Superfast 2.0

6) Jimmermania is driving me bonkers.

5) I wish I had an English accent (that one was from way out in left field)

4) I really miss somebody special

3) How good is this new Nike ball going to be this year?

2) How great would it be to get a job in Arizona and move close to some great friends (Beckstrands and Harts)

1) I really like Fruit Punch Gatorade

That completes my random thoughts for the evening.  If you made it this far in the reading, I applaud you and for that I will give you a high five. 

Memorable items

2010 has concluded and now it is 2011.  I've never been one for new year's resolutions because you can always change yourself at any time.  I love how people say "It is going to my year!"  I laugh at that.   I am not going to say it is my year, but to whatever the challenges that lay ahead, I say, "Bring it on!"  Yes I just used the cheerleading movie title, JUDGE ME!  So much has happened over the past year.  One chapter of my life has concluded and a new chapter has begun.  I thought I had control over my life, but over the past couple weeks and months I have realized I have NO control over life.  Everything cannot happen the way I want it.  It is on HIS time table not mine.  I make decisions but ultimately it comes down to His will and not mine.  I can want a job right away but if it is not in the cards so be it. 

I am a huge fan of the random quote so here is a compilation of quotes from the past year.  Most of these are from famous sports figures.  Some of these are pretty profound but some of them just make me laugh.  If any of you have some great quotes, please give them to me.  I have a book of quotes that I am putting together for when I become a professional teacher and when I coach.

"Never mistake activity for achievement." John Wooden

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." John Wooden

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" John Wooden

"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes." John Wooden

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." Michael Jordan

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed." Michael Jordan 

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.  Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave." Mark Twain

"Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be." Celmentine Paddleford

"Timing is everything- for this reason, patience is a vital ingredient in success planning." No idea?

 

"She call me the referee 'cause I be so official, my shirt ain't got no stripes but I can make your pu*** whistle" Drake

"TGIF!  Thank God I'm Filipino!"  Banagan

"I'm taking my talents to South Beach." LeBron

"Mr. Walker?  Do I have to wear my PE clothes at home when I am sick?"
"What?!"
"Well you said we are a 100% dress school, do I have to wear my PE clothes during PE class when I am at home sick?"

"Mr. Walker?  Can you see like everyone else?"