Howdy,
2023 was a whirlwind!
I married my lovely wife, Savannah, up in Northern Minnesota where most of her family is from. Shortly after returning home I ended up having a pretty major operation and down for the count for quite awhile.
As I have mentioned I am currently a career technical educator for Columbus City Schools. I had a great time creating the shop program for their middle school, Hilltonia. I learned a tremendous amount about the education system in those first three years. Due to circumstances and the lack of responsibility to attention some issue arose during a renovation of the space I was teaching in. This caused the fire marshal to put a pause on my shop classes until some higher ups could clear the way for me to continue teaching. It became apparent to me after many months this was not going to happen in a timely manner. I decided to take a job offer leading the construction program at Mifflin High.
Right before the school year my wife was rushed to the hospital for a placental abruption. Our son, Porter, was born 11 weeks early. It was an extremely traumatic experience as I almost lost both of them. And so on August 16th began what would end up being a 115 day stay in the NICU at Riverside and then Children's hospital.
Much more happened in those 115 days including a severe infection called NEC where we almost lost our son for a second time.
During this time I was trying to work in the business, teach and manage the household with our three other children. I eventually stepped out of the classroom on unpaid leave awaiting to be approved for catastrophic leave pay. I was granted that and am at home with our son as my wife has returned to her teaching position.
I currently do not know what my future holds in CCS as an educator. This is one of the main reasons I am looking forward to getting back into the shop at Griffen Hollow Studio. Creating is a passion and very therapeutic.
As for the rest of 2023 there are many pages between those events. Perhaps a share for another day.
Be well,
Alex "Oak" Traxler
