I have walked the road less traveled. I dropped out of high school when at sixteen years old, married my high school sweet heart who is still my wife, and went to work only to realize my need for an education. After challenging my GED and passing with high scores I gained employment from the very school I had dropped out of. Poetic justice put me in charge of graduation for the next twenty years, but after watching my son walk across the stage I had run away from I hitched up my pants tightened my belt steeled my nerve and quit my job of twenty years to enroll as a sociology student at Eastern Oregon University where I have had the privilege of being taught by a small but highly trained group of dedicated education professionals and was accepted on inauguration day of President Obama in 2009 and worked full time as a custodian for EOU while attending classes. Not wishing to waste another moment from my destined and often dreamed of passion working with troubled youth with whom I share commonality, I offered my resignation for life as a custodian, re-applied at the very district that had been my home for so long, and gained employment as an alternative education teacher. There is no waiting line for these jobs because the kids are thought of as being....well just like I was, and was accepted for the position despite still working towards my own graduation day. I am currently working both full time as a teacher and full time earning my degree in sociology. Though challenging, I have never been happier and thus never been more successful.Specialties: A unique talent to effectively communicate with many people who represent every stratum of our society, being equally comfortable around those less fortunate, as well as those representing the successful of our country. I have a wide range of vocational and educational skills in carpentry, plumbing, dry wall, professional painting, sociology, gender study, political science, personnel and union management relationships with woodcarving as an artistic endeavor (I carve walking sticks).