WHAT DOES FAMILY MEAN TO ME
My family is the single biggest reason I wake up every day. My upbringing with my parents shaped who I am, and continues to shape decisions I make as I strive to be as impactful of a parent as mine were to me. I am an only child and blessed to still be able to see my parents often as they still live relatively close (Mesquite).
In the Fall of 1995, I met the woman who would eventually become my wife, Rachel. We were both students at Texas A&M University at Galveston. What started as a friendship grew to be more and in 1999 we moved to Dallas to begin planning our wedding day. We would spend the better part of the next 20 years on the Dallas side of the Metroplex raising our four children.
* Lucas is a Senior at The University of Texas in Austin (as an Aggie, it is still hard to stomach sometimes), graduating this semester with a BFA in Design. While living in Mansfield with us in 2020, he chose to finish his senior year in Mesquite.
* Braden is a Sophomore at Nazareth University in Rochester, New York, majoring in Musical Theatre with a minor in Technical Theatre. While living in Mansfield during most of his high school years, he graduated from Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy, where he was able to fine-tune his skills in theatre. He is also a former grant recipient of the Mansfield Arts Council.
* Hannah is a Senior at Mansfield High School, driving us crazy with the college audition/decision process. She is a competitive dancer and officer with the Mansfield Gold Dusters and hopes to dance collegiately.
* Ashley is a Freshman at Mansfield High School and is involved in the student council, Key Club, Bell Guard, and the junior varsity soccer team. She is Mansfield's freshman representative to the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council or SuperSAC. While I feel like she keeps me young, she likes to point out that I am not THAT young.
My kids drive me to be the best that I can be. In making decisions at work, I often think, "How would I want my kids' principal/boss to deal with them in this situation?"
When starting my first career (nonprofit professional), I had a supervisor who would ask me to think about my decisions with the New York Times Headline Test in mind. It basically boils down to, "What kind of headline would your decision make if it was on the cover of the New York Times? Would you be proud of the decision? Could you defend the decision?" It's not the NYT Test that drives me today…it is simply, "What would my family think of me?"
Am I a family man? You better believe it. My parents, wife, and children…nothing in my life has shaped who I am more, and nothing impacts my daily decision-making more. I want to be a man my family can be proud of, my children can look up to, and, in turn, make the world a better place for them.
In the Fall of 1995, I met the woman who would eventually become my wife, Rachel. We were both students at Texas A&M University at Galveston. What started as a friendship grew to be more and in 1999 we moved to Dallas to begin planning our wedding day. We would spend the better part of the next 20 years on the Dallas side of the Metroplex raising our four children.
* Lucas is a Senior at The University of Texas in Austin (as an Aggie, it is still hard to stomach sometimes), graduating this semester with a BFA in Design. While living in Mansfield with us in 2020, he chose to finish his senior year in Mesquite.
* Braden is a Sophomore at Nazareth University in Rochester, New York, majoring in Musical Theatre with a minor in Technical Theatre. While living in Mansfield during most of his high school years, he graduated from Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy, where he was able to fine-tune his skills in theatre. He is also a former grant recipient of the Mansfield Arts Council.
* Hannah is a Senior at Mansfield High School, driving us crazy with the college audition/decision process. She is a competitive dancer and officer with the Mansfield Gold Dusters and hopes to dance collegiately.
* Ashley is a Freshman at Mansfield High School and is involved in the student council, Key Club, Bell Guard, and the junior varsity soccer team. She is Mansfield's freshman representative to the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council or SuperSAC. While I feel like she keeps me young, she likes to point out that I am not THAT young.
My kids drive me to be the best that I can be. In making decisions at work, I often think, "How would I want my kids' principal/boss to deal with them in this situation?"
When starting my first career (nonprofit professional), I had a supervisor who would ask me to think about my decisions with the New York Times Headline Test in mind. It basically boils down to, "What kind of headline would your decision make if it was on the cover of the New York Times? Would you be proud of the decision? Could you defend the decision?" It's not the NYT Test that drives me today…it is simply, "What would my family think of me?"
Am I a family man? You better believe it. My parents, wife, and children…nothing in my life has shaped who I am more, and nothing impacts my daily decision-making more. I want to be a man my family can be proud of, my children can look up to, and, in turn, make the world a better place for them.