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Dear Classmates,
Wow! I am not really sure where the last 25 years have gone. It seems like each day just happens and is filled with scheduled activities, and somehow now all of these individual days have turned into many years.
Here's my brief update.
I am married to the love of my life, Jonathan. Jonathan is a professor at Indiana Wesleyan in Marion in the social sciences division. We have been married for 17 years this coming Saturday (July 11). We have two wonderful sons, Daniel and Caleb. Daniel just turned twelve yesterday, and Caleb is 10 1/2. (The 1/2 is important when you are 10.) They will both be middle schoolers this year, and it is exciting to see them grow and develop interests and passions of their own. They bring us great joy, and from what I understand from parents of teenagers, they will also bring us much grief in the years to come.
I taught school in Marion at Jones Middle School for four years (1988-1992) after graduating from Ball State. Then, when Jonathan and I married (he lived in Chicagoland), I moved that way. We spent nine years in the suburbs, and it was during this time that I started to work in the field of property management. I enjoyed this field tremendously, and when we moved back to Indiana with the job offer to Jonathan at IWU, the company for which I worked allowed me to transfer.
From 2001-Spring 2007, I stayed in property management with AMLI Residential. If AMLI would have stayed in the Indy market, I would have stayed with them . . . probably for forever. However, Morgan Stanley (MS) bought AMLI, and MS wanted the Indy portfolio to go so go it did.
In Fall 2006, I started working for the new management company, and let's just say that I didn't care for the new company very much. One thing I valued about AMLI was that they walked their talk, and I am not sure I ever even figured out what the new talk was with the new company, let alone the walk.
After a lot of discussion and prayer, I decided to leave property management and go back to school. I applied to grad school at Ball State and received a graduate assistantship in the Department of Educational Leadership. I am returning to my first love of education, but combining it with all of my leadership and management experience. I graduated with my Master's this May, and I am now moving on to the doctorate. While I am not sure that I will ever work in a central office, if I decide that I want to do that in 10 years or so, it is highly unlikely that at 50+ I would decide to go back and get that degree. So, for now, I am a graduate assistant and full-time student. I just took my administrative licensing exam in June, and I should hear within a few days if I passed or if I have to take the dreaded test again.
We are unable to attend the reunion because we are heading to Canada to see Jonathan's family (he is from Nova Scotia). After a few weeks there, we are returning to New York for a conference, and then it will be time to start back-to-school preparations. Unbelievable!
I hope you are all doing well, and I look forward to reading about what you have been up to!
Sincerely,
Amy Conrad
