#LAX18: A Life Event, Part 3
After
In the three days that followed the Innovator Academy, my wife and I enjoyed a mini-vacation for our three year anniversary. We spent a near one hundred degrees day at the Los Angeles Zoo enjoying seeing all the animals and an extra large shaved ice. Another day we explored the awe-inspiring Getty Villa slowly taking in each room and the marvels they housed. We ended that day with a scooter trip to the Santa Monica Pier to enjoy the aquarium and a sunset dinner. Finally, on our third and last day, we walked all around Venice and the Venice canals. These days along with sunset walks each night, made this trip even more of a life event I’d never forget.
My wife and I flew back on Sunday, July 15th, and jumped straight back into work the next day. Since that day I marked off numerous items on both the work “to-do list” and the home “honey-do” list including building online professional development opportunities, recruiting in-house presenters for two face-to-face PD days, presenting to our district’s new teachers on Innovation and PLNs, moving and hanging pictures, and planning out a backyard fence. Though the busy life of an educator returned (crazy that it happens in summer too, right?), a day hasn’t gone by where I didn’t think of the Innovator Academy, my project, or the amazing people I met & grew closer to there.
I began reaching out to contacts to lay the foundation for my project, to find potential users and gauge the value of what I was proposing. I received replies back from all I contacted including a neighboring school division, the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE), EdTech Team, and even the Virginia Department of Education. Just as I looked to begin the next phase of the project, the lives of my family members were shaken by a great loss.
On July 25, 2018, my grandfather, Kurt Hausammann, Sr. passed away surrounded by his entire immediate family. I had made it home from Virginia ten minutes prior, talked to him, and held his hand. Never before had I seen my brother, uncle, or father cry. We all knew the end of his life had gone the exact way he had hoped with him surrounded by family and with him still at home just five days before entering the hospital. Though the man that brought the Hausammann’s to the USA was gone, his legacy would surely carry on.
So it turned out, I had two profound and memorable life events in the same summer. Life often gives just as it takes, the true impact of each lies in the reflection and response that follows. I cannot be more thankful to be a Google Innovator and have the tremendous connects that come with it. I also know that my grandfather helped guide me to where I am today and couldn’t see a higher level of gratefulness than I realized in the moment I knew he held on just for me. Positivity in the face of any life event is in the control of each one of us. Don’t simply react. Don’t give in to the inner imposter. Take time to reflect. Take time to reach out to your PLN, family, and friends. Respond when you’re ready. Respond when you know the feelings are true and not merely a quick reactions. Launch forward into the next challenge with positivity, kindness, and joy for you will spread your passion & feelings to others… Will you be a guiding light towards personal greatness for each member of your community? Be the one. Be the change. Be you.
This series of posts is dedicated to my late grandfather, Kurt Hausammann, Sr.
Patrick B. Hausammann, M.S. Ed.
Believer in the power of learners to change the world. Co-Founder of #EdcampNSV and Certified Google Innovator (#GoogleEI, #LAX18), Trainer (#GoogleET), Administrator, & Educator Levels 1 & 2.
Website: www.epedtech.com
Twitter: @PHausTech