It’s Been a Little While

Well, the title says it all. For the record, before you read on I’ll go ahead and say this could be a lengthy one. I say that now in assumption. A lot of time has passed since I last flexed my creative writing muscles. I also say that now because I currently sit in the foyer of the Gautier Middle School. Meg locked her keys in her car a few days ago, so here I am. Chauffeur Jones waiting for the cheer coach to get all of her cheerleaders fitted for their new uniforms.

So what’s been up? Well, why not start with the biggest and the best news. Meg and I are engaged! Though I’m sure you all know (if this post somehow finds it’s way into your life, then you probably have at least seen the multiple social media posts and updates). It was the best moment of my life so far, I can confidently say, but it was also simultaneously the most nerve-racking and weight lifting as well.

The moment where I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest.

If you know me, you know that I’m awful at secrets. Couple that with the fact that Meg is basically a private investigator, and my multiple months of planning and plotting become a pretty high stress situation. How did it happen you ask? Well Meghan Day of course. For those so unfortunate as to not be aquatinted with this yearly holiday, it’s the new self-proclaimed title for January 2nd, or more importantly, Meg’s birthday. Check my social media pages for the timeline of Meghan Day if you’re interested, but the grande finale of Meghan Day found us in The French Quarter of New Orleans.  With a chilly wind-gusts and 30-40 degree temperatures, I found myself in the middle of Jackson Square, knee on the pavement, and the love of my life promising to spend the rest of hers with me. So let the wedding planning begin right? Well, not quite, unfortunately for myself, as this next coaching arrangement took center stage.

Im speaking of Baseball, and I feel it will be without justice to my post to not do so, so I’ll give an update on that, since it has all but consumed the entirety of my being since early January. A 20 plus game season with 3 a week will easily become the definition of a grind.

The first of a few posters for the locker room.  Harsh, sure.  But I tough times call for tough people, and sometimes that’s not everyone.  That is , at it’s core, the nature of a culture change.  Something must change, or the results won’t.

I’ve never been one to shy from being realistic, but confrontation has never really been my thing either, so I’ll tread lightly here. To put it simply, these last four months were tough. As many of you know (and if you don’t, you will), culture change is rough. Rough on the coaches sure, but rough on the kids, too. If you didn’t know, the head coach and I inherited somewhat of a mess. We’ll call it a ship, it said ship is on the bottom of a deep and dark ocean. The first few weeks saw us begin our journey with 23 roster spots filled, ready and willing to start this culture building, ship raising journey. Only to fast forward to days before the season opener and find ourselves dwindled to 14. Expectations are high, and high expectations aren’t for everyone, especially when there have consistently been none. Times were tough before sure, but they had without a doubt gotten tougher. But it was, without a doubt, what one could actually call a necessary evil. Winning anywhere in anything is hard. That’s why not everyone can win. If they could, it wouldn’t be worth it would it? But, what’s harder than winning is to win where no one has won before, and a culture of winning needs to be established.

One of the few new posters I designed to put in the locker room this off-season.  Culture change is tough, but culture does win.  I think the message speaks for itself in this one.

But as I say, culture change is never easy, and sometimes a change as drastic is not for everyone. Changing the way that things have always been done is hard, and regardless of the record I watched a change growing. I watched a group of seniors who never had leadership given to them as they came up turn and give to their underclassmen teammates what they were always deprived of. I will always be thankful to have had the pleasure to coach our guys who bought into the process and stuck it out with us, especially those seniors for laying that foundation for us to build upon. Heck, we were running out multiple middle schoolers and freshman on a nightly basis, teaching and learning with fire. Don’t misconstrue this either. I’m not trying to make an excuse at all, sure we were young but that’s the name of the game sometimes. I say this just to say that our time is coming, and to leave this section on Baseball hoping that the same feeling of optimism for the future I feel in my heart I can put into text. As one of my guys would say it, it may be in the infantile stages, but “Gautier Baseball is on the rise, and that’s real spill.”

Suddenly, I find myself in a writing mood once again. It’s nice to get thoughts organized and out of my head, maybe that’s just the OCD coming out in me. I’m excited to have the opportunity to try and share this passion, as I’ve recently found out I’ll be teaching a new course in Digital Media at GHS in the next school year. I’ll be teaching them to do, well this. Along with writing, tweeting, posting, and designing any other happenings in the Gator Nation. But, for now this is neither the time or place to get into that. There’s a plethora more to talk about (and to find out about), so we can save it for another day. My thumbs are tired and my stomach is growling, but I promise to be back soon. There are plenty of Braves games on the schedule, summer plans, and bachelor weekends in Atlanta on the horizon, so for now, I’ll try to go and see how much longer I’ll be occupying this wooden bench. Hopefully not too long! Once again, thanks for the read!