Freedman, Here's Your Camera

Ahh, the gold 'ol days at middle schools! My first year teaching was in Killeen ISD...elementary PE. Drove me nuts. I love those children, but, they are babies who wanna touch, hug and smile at you all the time! Sweet, but kids, remember, I need my 9' of personal space!
My career began there. Outside on a huge playground with one million physical education students grade 3-6! The bright spot in each day was 'Watkins', the boy's PE teacher. He was a hoot and I was hooter. We ran that playground and school like clock work! What he didn't know, I did. And, that was in the days of paddlin'. So, I shared my paper thin paddle that a fellow teacher made for me.
She painted it light blue, put really pretty butterfly decals all over it and tied a ribbon around it as a gift! Welcome to the world of Principal Gene Franklin, the man who believed in paddlin'!!!
Now, understand, the thin banger board didn't bruise anything...but it stung like the dickens. I had to learn how to administer 'licks' to kids with the tiniest hinies in the entire world! Oh, you say, how mean was that? Get over it! We didn't do it for fun, and for some odd reason back then, their brains were located in that very mysterious spot!
I learned so much that first year with Watkins as my mentor. But the funniest thing I learned was how to duck out of the book room when over taken by laughter as I witnessed him giving pops.
He took Kenneth in one afternoon after his third warning. Kenneth, the third grader leaned over, grabbed his ankles and that anchored his nose about 2" off the floor. I was standing behind and there it went. Strike one. Right on the tiny hiney! And, there went the largest of the butterfly decals...floating on air, just as if it was real.
It floated carefully to the floor, swooping under Kenneth's nose and gently landing perfectly right before his big, brown eyes. That kid's eyes flew open, his mouth gaped and he drew a big breath! But, he was frozen in place and dared not say a word, he was already in big trouble! He thought the real deal had flown in the book room. I was overtaken by the whole scene and barely managed to excuse myself.
Lucky Kenneth, got him out of a boatload of trouble. Watkins lost control and as he began to laugh, told Kenneth to go to class! Ya had to be there to really appreciate it all.
In August, 1981, I accepted a position in Humble ISD. I told Ed Denney, the principal, I really didn't care to coach any longer. However, one of his women coaches had to return to Victoria to live with parents and take care of them. So, I coached three years there. When it was no longer 'fun' for me, I told him, "it's time to get me out of the coaching scene. The girls are worried about sweating in practice because the boys might be at the mall when they got there!" GIVE ME A BREAK!
Thus, he said, "ok, Freedman, I need a Journalism teacher and that's your minor. You'll continue as Health Department Chair and teach Journalism, sponsor Yearbook and Newspaper." That was okay with me...ready to go.
School began and I had my classes assigned. As I stood outside my room one day, Joyce Williams approached (an AP) and handed me a camera saying, "Freedman, here's your camera." I smiled as she shoved it in my hand and as I handed it back to her, I said, "no thanks, I don't do cameras." She forced it back into my palm saying, "you do now, your the Journalism teacher." I thought that was so cute as I gave it back one more time.
Her come back that round, "dammit, Freedman, take the camera and have fun." Well, I knew that was suddenly my camera! For some reason I began to take some decent candids around the building. Teachers would comment on those 'sharp, neat pictures' and I would say, they are just snapshots.
One day, a teacher brought one of her home shots to share. She had shot her two little girls and in the pic you saw these two little heads in the bottom right corner and an entire wall in the remaining print. That was a snapshot, what I was doing was kinda looking like photography.
And so it was to be. Suddenly, I had teachers asking if I'd do photos of their family. Well, far be it for me to refuse anyone's wishes. I did. I did more. I did a lot more. And, within 6 months I had people calling for my work.
I invested in all of my own equipment and went to town. The Journalism position threw me into a Freelance Photography business for the next 9 years and it blossomed like a Cherry Tree.
I had to decide in October, 1992 whether I would begin teaching a half day and doing photography business the other half day....or....would I apply for the Instructional Coordinator's position that had been posted. It was hard to decide. I had reached a point where I grossed about $20,000 a year off my cameras. But, I applied and was hired. I finished my last nine years as a coordinator and had a great time!
My cameras had allowed me to be published on a magazine cover, inside a kid's magazine (an athlete), a young lady published an album in Kingwood with my cover shot on it, and much more. It was a super experience and lots of fun!
As I thought about that experience today, it correlates somewhat to where I am today. However, Dr. Rogers said, I'm referring you for Lap Band and I didn't even blink twice! If I perform for this as well as I did with the cameras, it will all be fine.
When someone confronts you with a challenge of any kind, think before you take two steps back. If we all balk at new adventures, how boring would our lives be? I'm the first to admit, sometimes you must reach deep within and grab something called courage and inner strength!
Once you've found that, go for it! And, do it with a smile!