Because of Jack

After working as a school-age educator for twenty years, I decided to take a sabbatical. I want to learn new skills and search for a new path forward. The path may lead back to the classroom. I am also considering mentoring and supporting other educators through teaching. To help discover my next step, I want to reexamine the past and how I arrived in school-age education. After taking time for reflection, I found why I work with children. My beliefs about children and why I work and serve families are because of Jack.

The search for meaning, our motivations, and our actions always connect to "The Why." The "What" we do becomes easy to define, but "The Why" we do our work is where we find our true purpose. Jack represents "The Why" for me. Who is Jack? He lived as an educator, loved people, and his profession. He shared his joy for recreation with thousands of college students, including me. Fresh out of high school, I attended college for a short time before deciding to work and make money. Securing a good job, I made a good living and figured I would do this type of work forever.

A few years passed, and I realized I needed a challenge. I decided to go back to college and pursue a degree in my spare time. I did not have a specific course of study in mind, so I attended a community college. I studied general education courses and tried a few different majors. I earned enough credits to transfer to a four-year college. Arriving at my new school, I wondered what major to choose. I raced triathlon at the time, so physical education became my major of choice. 

Physical education was a great major. It was so popular no classes were available my first semester. Not sure of my next step, I visited a counselor in student services. I discovered there was a related field called Recreation and Leisure Studies. The course offerings sounded like physical education. After some thought, I decided to try some recreation courses, where I met Jack.

When I first met Jack---I felt nervous. His course was my first course at the university, and I was worried about completing the work. I can't remember my course title. What I do remember is when I sat down for the first class, he said, "Hi, I'm Jack. Then he said, this is Jack's grass class," as he started telling a story. The course was about grass and park maintenance and so much more. The course represented a life spent serving others through recreation and sharing the love for the power of play in people's lives.

I had never met someone with that much passion for anything. I switched my major to recreation the following week. For the next three years, I learned so much from Jack. I learned about his joy from facilitating play for others and how play was a powerful tool to help people discover happiness in life. Play transforms the lives of people with physical and mental challenges. I listened to hundreds of stories from Jack about his career and what he saw play do for people.

The last time I spent with Jack was on an island during my senior year trip. A group of students traveled 40 miles off the California coast to a small island to learn about recreation in the ocean environment. The students learned about many things that week. We learned about the animals and plants on the island. We learned about the sea life below the ocean surface, and students learned how to fish for our dinner. I learned how to approach life, serve others, and live in the moment. I listened to many of Jack's stories for the last time. I had heard his stories many times before, and each one filled my heart with hope for the future.

My career lives at a crossroads, or so I believed six months ago. Where should I go, and what should I do? Taking the time to look at what I care about and why I started in recreation helped me rediscover the why. I practice play and work in child development to pass on the legacy of Jack. A person who gave to all he met and promoted an ideal that play is still essential when people believe society is too modern or sophisticated for the simple things in life. But the simple joys of playing, being in nature, exploring, and owning time to pursue your passions are what make life. Thanks, Jack. I miss your wisdom, your smile, your kindness, and your stories.

Who have you met in life that positively impacted your future?