Me, Myself, and My Home
Possibly the most important thing to know about me is that I am just a simple country kid that feels stranded in a sea of concrete here in Norman! I live on a ranch so far removed from other people I have to drive five miles to visit my closest neighbor and 45 minutes to buy a jug of milk. The clear skies and endless fields are an open and free haven for me compared to the night skies polluted with the lights of the city and the expanse of concrete. Possibly even more important than my dislike of the concrete jungle is the lack of having my dog, named Link, here in town!
I ain't the biggest fan of big cities, but I have a goal while that brought me here to OU: to improve my home. My hometown is so small it isn't on most maps, unsurprising considering there are only 300 people who live there (299 when I'm in Norman)! As is a major problem with most small communities in Oklahoma, the schools don't get the support they need to make quality education readily available to their students. Growing up I saw dozens of students struggling in a school system which was incapable of providing them with the support they needed to be successful. Seeing this happen to so many students helped me find my passion for helping students. I came to OU so that I could become equipped to go back home and try and make a difference as an educator in a school which has long since given up hope.
I am studying Letters here at OU not only because I love the subject material associated with this program, but also because it is typically representative of the subjects least well taught in rural Oklahoma schools. When schools face budget cuts it is always the humanities programs which are hit first. Oftentimes, humanities teachers are replaced with coaches who, while assuredly well-intentioned, are dividing their time between a subject they were not prepared for and the administration of their teams. The ones who suffer most in this exchange are students and I want to try and return home to stop this in Prue (my hometown school district). I am also seeking a Master's degree in History Education so that I may gain enough knowledge to hopefully help not only struggling students but also the struggling teachers of these drowning school districts.
Finishing on a slightly less serious and more personal note: I am an avid musician (having been playing guitar 15 years and learning bass, mandolin, and piano in the intervening period), hobbyist chef (I am best at baking pastries but am starting to expand my repertoire into other areas), and legitimately a cowboy (I have worked on the ranch for the past seven years and have ran the gambit of cowboy activities from branding cattle to building fence to chasing obstinate heifers across a field like an absolute fool!).
