Mark Johnson

After graduation I went off to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. In the summer of 1990 I took a break from college and went off to Thailand for a 2 year LDS mission. After returning home I returned to BYU where I graduated with a degree in biology and received a secondary education teaching certificate. I taught science, math, life skills and computer lab at a full time detention facility for one year and promptly decided I needed a career change. I'm now doing the computer thing making a lot more money, working a lot less hours, and having a lot less stress. Makes me feel sorry for all of the crap I gave my teachers in high school.

I met my wife at BYU and we have been happily married for 13 years. We have 4 children, and yes, 3 of them have the same birthday. My wife is an aspiring movie maker and even has one feature length movie on the books that she co-wrote and I executive produced. You can check it out at: http://www.errandofangelsmovie.com/

Since graduation I have spent 8 years in Utah, 2 in Thailand, 5 in Washington, and the last 5 in Virginia where I currently work for the Department of Defense. Traffic sucks, the humidity sucks, almost all politicians suck. Other than that this place is awesome.

I haven't been to Cruces since 1994 and am looking forward to catching up with old friends at the reunion.

I can't remember all the times I got in trouble but here's some of my favorites:

Mrs. Sepulveda - "Mr. Johnson, do you want the floor? Cuz you can have it!" This happened on a weekly basis whenever anybody would get caught talking while she was talking.

Mr. Winters - "Mr. Johnson, stand up. Go outside and guard the water fountain and make sure nobody takes a drink of it!" Any time somebody would slouch in his class he would make them stand up and then if he caught them leaning on the desk he would send them (me) into the hallway to guard the water fountain.

Mr. Greene - On the first day of 10th grade Geometry I go limping into class because I had had surgery over the summer and had to wear this big orthopedic boot with a 4 inch heel only to have Mr. Greene think that I am making fun of him because he had a permanent limp after getting shot in the kneecap or something. What a way to start the school year off on the wrong foot. During the course of the semester he sent me into the hall at least a half dozen times but never to the principal's office. To this day I still don't understand why.

Herr Cothrun - being in his German class for 3 years and never hearing him speak in English until the one day that the class got him so pissed off that he just couldn't take it anymore and went off. I also remember the day that "Joe" (fake name to protect the non-innocent) just couldn't figure out how to say "Deutsch" and kept saying "douche" instead. Classic stuff.

And lastly, my favorite. I can't remember which 2 of these 3 (Darrell Sanderson, Tito Rico, and Vince Jewell) were involved but basically it was lunchtime and I was standing on the porch out front when one of them snuck behind me, the other one pulled the drawstring on my soccer shorts and the one behind me pulled my shorts down around my ankles. Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!