We are now in the home stretch of Directors School. I am currently sitting in a class listening to a presentation of Fiscal Resources Management. The more I sit in on these classes and have an opportunity to interact with the students the more I am impressed not only with the faculty but with the caliber of people who are currently in the field providing parks and recreation services to communities across the country. These professionals are hungry for knowledge and are passionately engaged in all of the sessions. They are high energy, challenging and thirsty for every kernel of information they can get. I am so impressed and so humbled. This school goes by so fast. It will be over by tomorrow evening. But the learning and networking will go on far longer than the short week here and benefit the communities that they all serve.

All of this has just served to reinforce my love of the educational process. The sharing of knowledge, the interaction of teacher and student, the joy of discovery, the blessing of sharing, the struggle, the laughter, the learning and growing – how does it get any better than this? I look out on this group of students right now and feel extremely blessed that they are the ones in the trenches making it happen in the field of parks and recreation. I started out in this field because I loved the educational process but did not buy into the traditional educational system. And over the years I have never regretted being in this field. When I decided to move out of teaching in after school programs, my goal was to make sure that the types of programs and services offered through parks and recreation would continue on as I experienced first hand the differences these programs made in people’s lives, including my own. And I sit here right now and am feeling that I have come full circle. To be able to be part of this very special educational process makes me feel that in some small way I am making good on the promise I made to myself years ago. As I see the passion of these students, I have no doubt that our profession will continue to carry on.

What did I do to deserve to being involved in such a special program? I am so glad that goes around comes around – and I am so glad that I was around when it came back around.