27th grade happened to be the peak of my life here on this Earth.
Starting with of course the obvious: On February 19th, 2023 I was married to my beautiful wife, completing my goal in life. Though I was not married by the age of 27 as I originally wanted, the wait was well worth it to have such a beautiful person inside and out by my side. Thank you Katherine Pham for making my dreams come true.
I hit the peak of my Phil’s BBQ visits with 200 visits to Phil’s BBQ at my joint bachelor-bachelorette party in San Diego. Until trip 250 or 300, I imagine this will be the peak for a while.
Coinciding with my best year of personal life also happened to be my best year of teaching, at least on paper.
I was a successful co-teacher with John Havey treating 7th grade history to students with and without IEPs. I built good relationships with many of these students, and continued to write letters to them. I thoroughly enjoyed this set of students – the class sizes helped me get to know most of them on an individualized and personalized level.
I made many amazing teacher friends, some of which will be moving on to other schools, spreading the wealth of their greatness all over Orange County.
I founded Builder’s Club, and we did various projects around the school. It remains to be seen whether they will do things off campus in the future, but we’ll see.
I also founded the Dale Senate, with the sole purpose of helping give students an opportunity to have their voice heard in school.
I won the Civic Engagement award for Dale Junior High (in excellence), causing in a plague to be given to the school by the State Supreme Court Justice Patricia Guerrero.
And finally, I got my own commercial produced by Honda, when they awarded me $5,000 in school supplies.
The summer ended on a high note, with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, a 3-hour concert highlighting the best of her discography over the years. I have no idea if she’ll surpass it in the future, but it was an unforgettable experience.
Needless to say, it’s going to be quite difficult to surpass 27th grade. But with approximately 29 years of teaching (and grades) to go, we will see.
